BECAUSE I COME FROM YOU

Maya Seri’s BFA thesis project BECAUSE I COME FROM YOU features photographs, video projection and sculptural installation, a project about home, identity and belonging. Seri’s perception of identity has changed through the making of this work. As she embarks in this period of transition as a 21-year-old, she realizes that she is no longer a girl. Feeling the departure from childhood, the artist can’t help but wonder, “Where is home?” She feels connected to Ohio, where the artist grew up, where she’s from. When in Boston, she feels a loss of identity and have to find herself over and over again. She asks: “Who am I? What am I? I am made of everything. I am made of the experiences I have had, the people I have met, and the places I have been.”

This project began as a journal entry to the artist’s younger self: “I just want to give you a hug. I want to see you smile and laugh. But that’s what I see in the mirror, isn’t it? I just don’t recognize it. You are me? I am you. I’m different, of course. I’m older. ‘Soiled’ by the world, as some would say. But I have you in me. I can be who I want to be because I come from you.”

About the Artist
Maya Seri’23 is a senior at Emerson College, is a passionate storyteller who uses the camera as a tool to connect with others and to understand herself and the world around her more thoroughly. Her work portrays themes of identity, girlhood, nostalgia, home, and connection.