Tenaya

Multimedia artist

Location: London
Career stage: Early
Freelancer: Available

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I make work as parades and processions of everyday life. I've trawled Karaoke bars in search of regulars telling their life through song. Sat in the home of Monster Raving Loony Party Candidate Dancing Ken discussing his vast collections from America, a place he never visited. Stood in the garden of Longhope local Tony Gill looking up at the enormous boat he has been building for 30 years, but is yet to sail.

My interest in the human condition heightened studying Social Anthropology at The School of Oriental and African studies. Shortly after transferring and graduating from BA Illustration, I founded the Visual Journalism partnership LandS. We experimented with documentary form; creating stories to be seen to, listened to and taken away. LandS orchestrated an array of public engagements; an alternative dog show in a local park, a street auction of common objects and their stories.

LandS ran until 2016 - when I was awarded a New Talent residency with The Watershed. The Watershed supported my search for unofficial National Treasures in Scunthorpe against its fading steel industry. This led to a British Council commission to visit Vietnam researching and recording the lives of Ethnic Minority women.

I have spent the past year archiving personal pride and small-town glory on the MA Visual Communication course at The Royal College of Art under the Bond Fund scholarship, this has given me space to create films like 'Oz' - a video re-enactment from The Wizard of Oz featuring a cast of 4 adult strangers who played the same lead roles as kids in their own school productions.

Searching for the invisible, I reveal glimpses into the lives and longings of seemingly lost, forgotten or overlooked characters. From humorous to heart-breaking, these untold revelations fuel my commitment to the creation of innovative narrative works.