"Erasing Borders: Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora" Exhibition

Crossing Art

poster for "Erasing Borders: Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora" Exhibition

This event has ended.

The Indo-American Arts Council, (IAAC) in collaboration with Crossing Art presents "Erasing Borders". The exhibition explores the themes of cultural dislocation, memory, exile and spiritual inheritances implicit in the word; Diaspora. "Quite a few of the artists--both abstract and figurative--describe their work (or the impetus behind it) in spiritual terms, and many of the works comment directly on environmental and political issues. Khalil Chishtee's figures are made out of plastic bags. Jagdish Prabhu has 'drawn' his figures in soot (carbon), the "much maligned but primal substance"... (Whose)..."fluidity and etherealness embody the ephemeral nature of existence." Pritika Chowdhry's installation titled "What the Body Remembers" is comprised of sculptures that "investigate the potential of the... fragmented body to invoke collective narratives of trauma", Vijay Kumar. The exhibition comprising of 27 contemporary artists, a mix of painting, drawing and prints, photographs, C-prints, photomontages and videos, sculpture and installation, explores and draws from the experiences of artists whose origins can be traced to the Indian subcontinent. Cultural dislocation often produces unexpected and profound results; memory collides with exile, culture engages with adaptation to understand the powerful and often disturbing concepts of change and assimilation. The artists confront issues of sexuality, terror, disease and multiple identities to weave together existence in a globalized context while subject matter is often drawn from the country of origin, many of the aesthetic values and political concerns come from the artists' newfound situations. The result deserves a new "ism", a new journey to an old destination.

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