Diwali 2016 brought many gifts including the opportunity to create a Diwali poster for McDonald’s restaurants in the US. Working closely with Leo Burnett USA, I created an original artwork for the McDonald’s Diwali 2016 campaign. The poster made a month-long appearance at each and every McDonald’s across the United States. It was a wonderful experience expanding my skills to include commercial illustration. Check out the poster below.
Royal Canadian Mint Coin Design
Gold, silver, nickel and coins of various other metals have been a regular feature of Diwali for me. Even the humble penny. As a child celebrating Diwali I remember following a ritual laid out by my father that I little understood: washing all the coins in the prayer plate, annointing them with milk and red sandoor. It was an offering to Laxmi, the Goddess of prosperity.
I continue this today, however this year I have had the privilege of designing a 1oz. gold coin for the Royal Canadian Mint. Inspired by Rangoli designs, this Limited Edition coin is available online from the Royal Canadian Mint where you can also read about the symbolism. Click on the hand to reveal the numismatic coin!
Solo Show @ Daniels Spectrum Opening Night Photos
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.
