Encounters
In a year defined by great turmoil and deep sorrow, when all forms of symbolic and actual distance, division, and isolation overwhelmed our daily lives and our world, how did we make space for meaningful creativity, connection, and collaboration?
Encounters features fourteen women from the South Asian Diaspora who came together across geographical, cultural, political, and religious boundaries. Working as ‘artist pairs’ and grounded in an ethos of friendship, creative partnership, and community-building, their artworks illuminate shared bonds and histories, reveal personal and political narratives that may have been otherwise unknown or invisible, signal an economy of care, and envision a equitable future in which women thrive.
In their collaborations, the artists draw on many South Asian traditions of craft such as bandhani dyeing techniques, mehndi, weaving, embroidery, as well as mediums of video, painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and choreography. Underscoring these artistic encounters are works that elevate the voices of generations of women across South Asian communities and address a range of pressing issues weighing on their hearts and minds: displacement and migration, the impact of ongoing traumas of war and gender violence. Whether they co-created these works digitally, or over many Zoom sessions, or through several back-and-forth travels through the mail, the artists featured in Encounters forged through distance, separation, and time zones in what they deemed 'a radical act of dreaming together.
Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL) resented by the South Asian Womxn's Creative Collective (SAWCC) in partnership with Jamaica, New York April 1–May 15, 2021
Artists
Rashida Abuwala & Maya Mackrandilal
Anjali Deshmukh & Purvi Shah
Renluka Maharaj & Seema Shakti
Shreya Mehta & Barkha Patel
Labkhand Olfatmanesh & Gazelle Samizay
Ramya Ravisankar & Marcy Chevali
Sania Samad & Sadia Pasha Kamran
Press
Installation photos courtesy of JCAL