Inter/Access SAVAC Bursary Award

InterAccess, a new media and technology gallery and production studio in Toronto has awarded me an InterAccess Bursary Program through it’s organizational partnership with SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre). The bursary offers me a one-year studio membership to learn about, explore, and use interesting equipment such as 3D printers and a laser engraver. I will be using my time there to explore wearable technology. InterAccess has a wonderful ongoing program of workshops for artists. Have a look.

Thank you InterAccess and SAVAC!

Aga Khan Museum Artist Talk on YouTube

In June 2019, I gave an illustrated talk on my practice. The talk was recorded by the Aga Khan Museum and can be viewed on their YouTube channel. Thank you to the AKM for generously inviting me and archiving this talk.

OAC Visual Artists Creation Project Grant: Transiterations

I have been awarded an Ontario Arts Council Visual Artists Creation Projects Grant for the creation of new paintings titled Transiterations. This grant will allow me to explore an abstract painting language to express my experience of migration from India to Canada using bolts of coloured fabric as a metaphor for transition. Thank you, OAC!

Distributed Identities Residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

I have just returned from Distributed Identities, a 5-week thematic residency led by artists Deanna Bowen and Brendan Fernandes at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta. My residency was supported by the Canada Council and the Banff Centre. It was a remarkable time of experimenting with new mediums and ideas that are sure to have a lasting impact on my practice. During my time there, I worked with the elements—the snow, ice, below-zero temperatures— and saris to consider the ways in which climate and landscape impact upon a migration journey to Canada. You can find work-in=process images and thoughts on my time at Banff on my Instagram feed. Thank you to the Canada Council, the Banff Centre and the facilitators, colleagues and staff for an incredible experience nestled in the Canadian Rockies and the land of the Stoney Nakoda, Blackfoot, and Tsuut’ina Nations.

Canada Council Research and Creation Grant for Outerwhere

I am thrilled to share the news that the Canada Council for the Arts, Canada’s national arts funding body, has awarded my work-in-progress project, Outerwhere, a major Research and Creation grant.

Outerwhere is currently in production is a series of fibre-based, sculptural installations of embellished second-hand winter coats. Combining found objects: old winter coats from Canada; small trinkets, objects, food wrappers, plastic flowers, fabric ribbons, mirrors and bells from India, fabric swatches, conductive yarns, and small sound players, Outerwhere will explore the binaries of inside/outside, personal/public, past/present as they relate to material culture, climate and the migratory experiences of South-Asian-Canadians.

With this grant, I am able to expand this project and explore new material inclusion into the coat linings. You can see some images of the process so far on Instagram under the hashtag #outerwhereseries.