Reset: Moving Through the Actions (I no longer feel real), 2019, video installation (2:07 min.).
Reset: Moving Through the Actions (I no longer feel real) is an installation-based work comprised of two videos that respond to one another. As one video says something like “smile” the exact opposite video does it and says something like “frown” in which the first video responds.
The concept of this video derives from social conventions that Canaviri find herself playing into on a habitual basis. For example, being asked “how are you?” when passing someone by does not typically engage with a long conversation telling that person that you are not okay and that you could not remember the last time you were. It, instead, warrants a smile and a “good, how are you?” as a reply. For herself, it is something that Canaviri find is on repeat. As such, she has developed a code on how to respond in which she tells herself to do some physical action as to acknowledge the person she is talking to. In some ways and as mentioned in the video, doing an action like cutting her hair distracts people from engaging with Canaviri beyond the question of “why?”. It refrains people from seeing her “reset” and seeing a more authentic version of herself in which she feel vulnerable. However, in trying to avoid being vulnerable, Canaviri begin to feel less real with her forced actions.
The concept of this video derives from social conventions that Canaviri find herself playing into on a habitual basis. For example, being asked “how are you?” when passing someone by does not typically engage with a long conversation telling that person that you are not okay and that you could not remember the last time you were. It, instead, warrants a smile and a “good, how are you?” as a reply. For herself, it is something that Canaviri find is on repeat. As such, she has developed a code on how to respond in which she tells herself to do some physical action as to acknowledge the person she is talking to. In some ways and as mentioned in the video, doing an action like cutting her hair distracts people from engaging with Canaviri beyond the question of “why?”. It refrains people from seeing her “reset” and seeing a more authentic version of herself in which she feel vulnerable. However, in trying to avoid being vulnerable, Canaviri begin to feel less real with her forced actions.
When it was over, 2019, video (4:38 min.). Live performance.
Within the narration of When it Was Over, Canaviri's own personal story unfolds which includes her thoughts and her actions. In it, she switches from using present tense to past tense and the her presented on screen is having a very real reaction to what she is saying. Meanwhile, the her who is performing is faced with trying to tell the same story to her peers and has to feel the weight of what it means to say something uncomfortable to a large group. Both versions of Canaviri represent the pressures of what it is like to be a woman in today’s society where consent is not always taken into consideration and neither is the narrative. Where some women have come forward with stories similar to hers or much worse, they are placed in situations that attempts to shun them or make them feel inadequate for coming forward to the point where the story is no longer told. By recording this video, Canaviri is not letting her voice be shunned and is opening herself up for a conversation with others.
