Meera Sethi discusses her artistic practice with Contemporary Art Historian, Dr. Natasha Bissonauth
In conjunction with Meera Sethi's exhibitions at Cambridge Art Galleries, Dr. Natasha Bissonauth will join Meera in discussing aspects of her current research and artistic practice.
About the Presenters:
Meera Sethi is a contemporary artist with an intuitive and research-based practice that moves across painting, drawing, fibre, illustration, performance, and social practice. Her work sits at the intersection of the subjugated body and histories of cloth with a particular focus on South Asia and it’s diasporas. She is interested in the making, wearing, and disposing of cloth; clothing as a form of self-expression and resistance; and the ways by which textile is constituted over vast geographies. Through her work, she delves deep into our understanding of the self, the body, cloth and clothing, including it’s histories, resonances, and possibilities. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Wedge Collection. She lives and works in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Mississaugas of the Credit River. Her exhibitions Cotton Exchange and Outerwhere are currently on view at Cambridge Art Galleries.
Dr Natasha Bissonauth teaches Visual Art and Art History at York University (Toronto). Prior to York University she was Assistant Professor of Women’s Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the College of Wooster. She received her Ph.D. in Art History at Cornell University and her research centers queer, trans, and feminist contemporary art practices with expertise in South Asia and its multiple diasporas. Recent research interests expand on indenture studies, archival work, and material cultures. She is currently working on a book project that investigates aesthetic encounters with archival fragments in ways that creates passage between legacies of immigration and indenture. By threading ‘areas’ like South Asia, the Caribbean, and Mauritius, Black and brown seams within the discipline emerge. Select publications include “Sunil Gupta’s Sun City: An Exercise in Camping Orientalism” (Art Journal; 2019), “The Future of Museological Display: Chitra Ganesh’s Speculative Encounters” (in Museums, Sexuality, and Gender Activism, 2020), and “The Dissent of Play: Lotahs in the Museum” (South Asia, 2020). Recent articles examine gender and indenture aesthetics in Kama La Mackerel’s poetry and Renluka Maharaj’s visual practice. Several exhibition catalog essays are forthcoming, on the artistic practice of Zanele Muholi, Chitra Ganesh, and Meera Sethi, respectively. Additionally, Bissonauth will contribute an exhibition essay for Divya Mehra’s next solo exhibition, winner of the Sobey Art Award in 2022. Select artist interviews, exhibition reviews, and book reviews appear in Art Asia Pacific, Art India, C Magazine, and Women + Performance. Bissonauth is the current Reviews Editor for the peer-reviewed journal ADVA (Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas).
Cost: Free
This event is presented on Zoom. You only need to register once per device.
AGE GROUP: | Cambridge Art Galleries | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Lectures + Talks |
Virtual programming means we bring the programs directly to you – it’s all online! Join us virtually from the comfort of home.
Be inspired at Idea Exchange in Cambridge! Connect with the public libraries and public art galleries of Cambridge. Idea Exchange supports and inspires our community with an environment of discovery for people of all ages.
Need help?