Kearra Amaya Gopee

Kearra Amaya Gopee Kearra Amaya Gopee Kearra Amaya Gopee Kearra Amaya Gopee
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    • ARTIFACT #3:TERRA NULLIUS
    • ARTIFACT #2: NYLON POOL
    • ARTIFACT #1: TIGER BALM
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    • SOUCOUYANT RISING
    • NINE NIGHTS
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Kearra Amaya Gopee

Kearra Amaya Gopee Kearra Amaya Gopee Kearra Amaya Gopee
  • HOME
  • CURRENT
    • DIVINITY SURPLUS
    • CA(R)MILLA
    • PAPPYSHOW
    • AN EXCISION SPELL
    • TUTORIALS ON RADIANCE
    • HOW TO BREAK A HORIZON
    • ARTIFACT #3:TERRA NULLIUS
    • ARTIFACT #2: NYLON POOL
    • ARTIFACT #1: TIGER BALM
    • PURCHASE DESIRE PATHS
  • ARCHIVE
    • SOUCOUYANT RISING
    • NINE NIGHTS
    • COUP
    • DOCUMENTARY
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • CV

CA(R)MILLA (2023)

TRT: 12:02

Single channel projection.

Mirror, crocus bags, wooden frame, wooden benches, iron nails, concrete, topsoil.


On its surface, Ca(r)milla appears to be an excerpt from a documentary surrounding the daily life of the owner of a small landscaping business in Carapichaima, Trinidad and Tobago. However, the business is quickly revealed to be a front–the owner, played by my own mother Camilla, is a hybrid of a vampire and a soucouyant with her true trade being the import/export of Caribbean soil throughout the region and its’ disporas. Second only to blood, soil–specifically the soil from the place where a vampiric creature had their most formative life experiences– is critical to the potency of a vampire’s power and its overall ability to survive. Camilla, then, facilitates the possibility for a vampire to travel freely without restraint. The video is a braided essay featuring the voices of both Camilla and that of Dr. Patricia Vincent, a disgraced vampirologist with an explicit focus on vampirism in the Americas and the Caribbean.  


As I developed the thesis for this film, it became clear that there were two narrative imperatives at work: 1. a desire to play with and/or subtend tropes such as monstrosity, Caribbean folklore and desire that have long served as sites of comfort and 2. using fantasy a method to stave off the anticipatory grief that now inundates the relationship between my mother and I in the wake of my grandmother’s passing in 2021. The inevitability of loss and the application of a queer lens to grief and faith spill forth and alchemize the edges between fantasy and reality. At its core, this video is a wish. 


Cast 

The Soucouyant- Camilla Gopee 

Dr. Vincent- Ishara Agostini 

Investigator- Kearra Amaya Gopee  


Crew 

Direction, Camera, Editing- Kearra Amaya Gopee 

Colour- Kya Lou 

Sound design- Akeema-Zane 

Title animation- Maya K. Ramesar

Sound balancing- RaFia Santana


Exhibition text by Katherine Reynolds.


Photographs courtesy gallery Albany and Marc Tatti.


This work was supported by Sweat Variant and the Foundation for Contemporary Art.


Copyright © 2024 Kearra Amaya Gopee - All Rights Reserved.


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