Aruni Dharmakirthi MFA Visual Studies Thesis 2017
Fissures of the In-between
Fissures of The In-between, explores the repetition of oppression and resilience by looking at my individual experience as a South Asian immigrant. In my body of work, I explore the impacts of colonization and immigration on South Asian culture within the diaspora. I use South Asian aesthetics as a way to create a dialogue between my-experience of resilience as an immigrant and the resilience of my ancestors as victims of colonization. Tradition becomes a marker of resistance against Western cultural dominance and the thread that allows me to tap into the collective memories of colonization. I utilize personal and collective history to examine the impacts of colonial oppression and neocolonialism, and to depict the repeated traumas of that history.