Stitch Me Up

Stitch Me Up is an immersive video and music installation displayed at the Kalashnikovv Gallery in Braamfontien, supported by the Wits City Institute.  It sought to document the experiences of Ruzza Wazzi, a migrant living in the tumultuous, liminal space of Hillbrow. Having worked with Wits doctroal student Aiden Mosselson Alan / Ruzza’s personal journey and quest evokes the deep-seated yearning for personal liberation and sense of self that various migrants are confronted with. The combination of light, sound and visual imagery is used to attempt to depict what it is like to live as a hybrid, in a constant state of being somewhere but not wanting to be there, of being physically in a place but mentally and spiritually elsewhere, of facing daily struggles but still hoping for something better, of being saddled with an identity which derives not from who you are, but from where you come from and where you currently reside, and of struggling to find the tools and abilities to make sense of it all. Through the narrative constructed by the music and visuals, Ruzza tries to transcend his daily life. The project therefore also becomes an opportunity to marvel at how one can make a home in what is considered to be a transitional space within the city, how people find peace in harsh circumstances and how the tenacity to dream persists, even where no tangible pathways to liberation are present. It is thus a meditation on the themes of self, identity, home and belonging and an exploration of how individuals’ relationships with the city and the spaces they find themselves in are mediated, performed and re-constructed daily.