Zenana (Recast)
Exhibited in Only Connect, curated by Andrew Purvis.
Adelaide Central Gallery, February 11 – March 15, 2019.
Andrew writes, “While recent years have seen an improvement in the awareness of cultural exploitation and appropriation across the creative arts, this understanding is not universally shared and is a growing point of contention. Rather than retreat from this fraught position, the artists in this exhibition have explored potentially deeper and more sensitive means of engagement and cross-cultural exchange.” For this exhibition the invited artists have employed varied means of engagement while working cross-culturally between India and Australia.
My ephemeral vinyl work Zenana (Recast) references Jaali work seen within the zenana, or women’s quarters at the Palace within Amer Fort, combined with motifs found on a silk wrap purchased at a thrift store in a rural Australian town. The making of the work in both sites charts my own personal journeys through decades and shifting locations. In these, as with all my work, the focus and story is about celebrating intimate engagement with others and the motif and design become both conduit and expression for this.
As is consistent with my art practice both the original and recreated works respond to site. The first iteration, Zenana was installed on hexagon-shaped heritage terracotta tiles. For this recent installation I have responded to the more intimate domestic scale of the gallery translating the imagery vertically to wall and floor.
Respected musician and writer Linda Neil produced a soundscape to accompany the first iteration of Zenana (Recast). The soundscape gives the viewer another way to encounter this work, revealing additional layers of the artmaking process and my intent.
Media & documentation
Installation view and detail
Image courtesy of Adelaide Central School of Art. Photography by Sam Roberts.