Opening night for my current solo exhibition "Upping the Aunty" at Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park, Toronto was spectacular. We had such a fabulous range of people come through over the 4 hours. People saw, coloured, ate, drank (there may even have been a few dance moves), connected. Daniels Spectrum and the wonderful people who work there from the curator elle alconcel to the Executive Director Seema Jethalal is an inspired place existing in the precious in-between space of a gallery and a community hub. It is an honour to show my work there. Photo credit: Yannick Anton (@yannickanton)
A Colouring Book for Adults
While continuing work on my Upping the Aunty series of large-scale paintings, I decided to take a few weeks off to create the Upping the Aunty colouring book for adults and children alike. The book features 30 drawings all ready to be coloured in. It's a feminist project that simultaneously challenges how we see our aunties and how we see fashion. Some of the drawings are humorous, some subversive and others just plain fun.
The book was launched at The 6IX Goddess, NorBlack NorWhite's pop-up in Toronto this past September. The first print run has sold out, however a second run in ready for purchase in the shop for the holiday season. The Upping the Aunty Colouring Book is only $20 and ships internationally from Toronto. Get yours!
One Spirited Evening in August
My mother, Indu Sethi in 1970s Toronto, Canada.
For me, #Unstitched is an intimate reminder. Wrapping us closely, the sari holds the stories of our bodies. What do we carry, hide, fold into ourselves? And what happens when it is WE who are unstitched, not held together, when we fall apart? Can we hold these stories the way a sari drapes, forgiving and lovingly holding each and every body the way a sari is unconditional in its holding.
#Unstitched The Sari Project has its own journey, one that will unfold in its own way. Some participants will engage with the sari as a material object, a garment, a craft. For some, the sari will be an entry point, into personal memory, sweetness, celebration, challenges, growth. For some, the sari suggests the politics of colonialism, migration, racism, resistance.
#Unstitched opens a conversation about the sari beyond its role as something to just wear, placing it in the folds of shared experience. The project offers new ways of thinking about the sari, of what we wear, how we wear it and why we wear it.
#Unstitched is a project that crosses many boundaries: nation, culture, class, caste, religion, gender, sexuality, ability, age, language, race, family. And more. In this crossing, the project neither erases these boundaries, nor is determined by them. It seeks to explore a different kind of belonging, and relationship, one that exists in spite of these barriers to create what Jaquie Alexander calls ‘genealogies of critical consciousness’, through which we become visible to one another and resist the invisibility of our lives. It is an invitation of connection, transformation, healing.
A special thank you to two very good friends - Vivek Shraya and Gurbir Singh Jolly - for documenting the evening through the photographs below. Also a very special thank you to Narendra Pachkhédé for his guest talk at the launch. And a big hug to my partner Karishma Kripalani, my sister Meha Sethi, my parents Bali and Rupa Sethi and wonderful friends Rachna Contractor and Andil Gosine who moderated the evening talks.
#Unstitched Toronto Launch Aug 19, 2015
Come celebrate the Launch of #Unstitched / The Sari Project
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
7-9:30pm
Artscape Youngplace, Rm 107, 180 Shaw St, Toronto
1 sari. 108 people.
We invite you to the launch of #Unstitched: an international, collaborative, performance art project and the co-launchof Unstitched Thoughts – a series of conversations on the idea of Sari during the project’s two-year journey around the world.
For the opening keynote, join writer, philosopher and theorist, Narendra Pachkhédé for a lively discussion of the sari as an object of inquiry. How can we examine the sari as a cultural artifact? How can we value the act of wearing a sari as an event? How can we engage with the cultural significance of the sari, the politics of sari-wearing, and explore its story as that of a great survival.
7:15pm Project Introduction: Meera Sethi
7:30pm Opening Keynote: Saree as an object of inquiry by Narendra Pachkhédé, Commonwealth Fellow
8.15pm Q&A: Artist Meera Sethi and Narendra Pachkhédé
8:30pm Reception
Join us to send off #Unstitched in style!
Cover Art for "Unsettling India"
Back almost a year ago, I was approached by Duke University Press to license an image of my artwork Anamika Sengupta (Ann) to them for the cover of a forthcoming title "Unsettling India: Affect, Temporality, Transnationality" by Purnima Mankekar who is a Professor of Gender Studies and Asian American Studies at UCLA.. I was thrilled as I was a fan of Purnima's work having reviewed it for my graduate thesis.
Earlier this summer, a copy of the final published book arrived on my doorstep with my artwork on the cover! Maybe it's time we judge a book by its cover.