Visual Arts
Raphaël Benedict
Identité

Photograph of the artist as a child. Drawings depicting only tiny faces in black and white.
Identité (Identity)
Raphaël Benedict, 2005
Artist's book
Leather, wood, etchings and digital images on paper
Thumbnail of Être et ombre Thumbnail of Identité Thumbnail of Témoin
Thumbnail of L'ombre Thumbnail of Identité Thumbnail of Sauvez-moi

“This project enabled me to look closely at my aboriginal identity. With an Abenaki father and a Québécoise mother, I'm a member of the half-race of humans among whom uncertainty is a type of ghost looming above our beings. My skin bears traces of my father and my mother. I have two races, two cultures, and two ways of seeing in my genes. I am slowly harnessing the Abenaki in me —I am very familiar with the Québécois part! I'm also European, American, English Canadian, a fortunate chaos. Enriched by these influences, I study my body and the genealogy in order to find some clues...

The crowd, the faces, all anonymous, all alike, but different, unlike... Aligned as in a DNA chain, separated, cellular, inscribed within me, invisible. They follow me despite myself; keep me assembled, in a single piece held together by my skin. What do you say I am? My skin is white...”

Raphaël Benedict