Curator's Choice: South Asian Artists Addressing Migration through New Artifacts, Sadaf Padder, Artsy
Through art, I, like many South Asians of the diaspora, have found a sense of community, self-love, and belonging. But I still yearn for expansive representations in art that depict the many ways it looks and means to be South Asian.
As Bangladeshi American novelist Tana·is writes in their book In Sensorium: Notes for My People, "Fractures and cracks emerge when we occupy 'South Asian' spaces-organizing collectives, conferences, campaigns, fancy galas-obscuring what is actually meant: India. They are mostly always run by upper-caste Indian Hindus."
Today, contemporary artists of the South Asian diaspora are exploring futurism, hybridity, and spiritual traditions to shed light on migration and the subsequent search for home. Rajni Perera, Misha Japanwala, Suchitra.Mattai, Chitra Ganesh, and Ashwini Bhat draw inspiration from their global ancestries, namely cultures from Sri
Lanka, Pakistan, Guyana, and India. "When it comes to economic security, money, recognition, institutional support, we, the peoples beyond India's borders, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, all the way to Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Fiji-are forgotten. We have less proximity to whiteness, our lands and histories outside the bounds of the Great Indian imaginary," Tana·is continues in In Sensorium: Notes For My People.