#nonwhitefeminism

[textaqueen]

Sub-Cultural Charms (2013), June in my 2019 Calendar and available as a poster print through my online store, link in bio. enter code 2DIRL for 50% orders of 2 or more prints until June 14th. The gothic appropriation of the nose chain is reclaimed in this self-portrait to carry charms representing cultural influences and projections on the artist as a person of Indian origin living in the diaspora. TextaQueen’s profile hangs heavy with capitalism, Catholicism, the imposition of binary gender and heteronormativity, being raised monolingual in the colonial language of English, and the wrestling of ethno-cultural vs locational identity – many of these legacies invisibly embodied in the charm of a family portrait. #charmedimsure #culturalcharms #browngoth #nosechain #nonwhitefeminism

[oliviadurai]

FAMILY CONNECTIONS:

OLIVIA inherited her last name from her mother, a practice that will continue with EVIE. #nonwhitefeminism

Grace is a stage actress, a profession in which Evie follows suit. Liv takes a detour and takes up her father’s career, lawyer and eventual judge. Their family is at a bit of a standstill at the moment; Grace’s husband has always dreamed of serving on the Second Circuit, but the political climate has brought those plans to a halt for the time being.

Grace is incredibly close to her daughter and always has been, despite those rocky high school years. She never had any other children, instead choosing to focus on her activism, which has been close to her heart since she was a teenager. That at least provided her more time to focus on Liv’s particular, ahem, issues.

RANDOM FACTS:

Think Judith Light. Feminist badass, killer activist, Tony winner. That’s Grace.

Grace has always been kind, but she has a wild streak in her, and a certain darkness that is well hidden and maintained through self-care but has never gone away. In her business, she’s seen a lot of people die — and though that staved off a long time ago, she’s constantly surrounded by ghosts.

Is very firmly an atheist. Blame her parents. She married a Muslim, but Liv ended up not ascribing to any religion either.

Liv has no complaints about her family, and for good reason. Grace loves her husband and always will. She’s content, save for wishing that she had more kids from time to time. These past few years, she’s taken a liking to TWO-BIT, but she tries not to be invasive since, y’know, he has a mother. But she looks out for him when she can. He reminds her of her brother, who died when she was young.

[vaginapotentia]

finns numera på twitter igen ✌🏾️@vaginapotentia #blackandwhite #nonwhitefeminism #feminism #blacklivesmatter #women #woman

[textaqueen]

This Sunday May 6, I’m on a panel at ACMI as part of the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival with Dawn Dangkomen, Roj Amedi, Torika Bolatagici, and Olivia Guntarik. ‘In the wake of the #MeToo social media campaign and revived discussions on feminism, where does this leave gender equality in Australia today? How do we now strategically mobilise beyond online discussions to build sustainable movements and alternative institutions?’ HRAFF Talks: Where to From #MeToo? Studio 1, ACMI, Fed Square, Melbourne-Narrm 1-2pm, $13 conc $15 full #nonwhitefeminism (at ACMI)

[textaqueen]

Eve of the Apocalypses, 2017, pigmented Indian ink marker, watercolour, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint on cotton paper, 127 × 97cm. Image for the month of December in my 2018 Calendar, though flaming apocalypse feelings have been recurrent in 2017 / are timeless. 'Eve is biblically blamed for being tempted by the serpent into eating from the tree of knowledge, thus inciting the Christian God to banish humanity from the Garden of Eden. Her story is re-told here as resistive allegory to the non-mythical apocalypses of colonialism in India. She erotically embraces the deadly cobra as she sits upon the ignited skulls of colonists from England, France, Denmark and Portugal. She tempts us with a fruit mythically significant across Asia, known in English as the pomegranate, which now grows like her diaspora does, dispersed by colonialism across other lands.' #eveoftheapocalypses #kingcobra #deadcolonists #flamingskulls #pomegranate #gardenofeden #colonialism #nonwhitefeminism #decoloniseyourdesire #textaqueen #2018calendar (at India)

[textaqueen]

Sometimes even I forget that my original drawings are really quite big. Many people who have had my postcards, posters, etc on their walls for decades, who have expressed what my art has meant to them, haven't seen any in the flesh. What I've valued most about having a survey show has been witnessing the emotionally stirred reactions from friends and other people for whom I make my art, in front of the original work, and the messages I've received about this experience from strangers. I've been repeatedly reminded that I create art for the people who witness some part of themselves in it (sometimes directly as subjects), for others who have rarely seen these representations framed in empowerment, especially in these privileged spaces. These people aren't usually the ones who have been able to buy my original work - this happened more often during the fourteen years that I (mainly) drew white feminist-identified women and only a couple of times since I've focused on representing racialised bodies - statistics reflecting the impacts of structural realities on people's wallets. Experiences over this last year have pushed me to further reflect on how structural power dynamics impact the institutional palatability of non-intersectional white feminist art versus the relative rarity in institutional representation of work that is featuring - and created by - racialised, melaninated bodies expressing empowerment in femme and feminist identity, and the lesser commercial value of this less represented work. Also reflecting on my work's (subversive?) vehicles of palatability in institutional and commercial contexts, such as humour and medium, and my palatability via privileges that aid my access to these contexts, including via the above language that is inaccessible to many others. #betweenyouandme #textaqueen #nonwhitefeminism #access #institutionalpalatability #whitefeminism #brownbodies #whitewalls #modelminority #Repost @tweedregionalgallery ・・・ Visitors are loving spending time examining the works in @textaqueen's exhibition 'Between You and Me'. Visit the Gallery this summer and see this wonderful exhibition for yourself, until 25 February 2018. (at Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre)

[textaqueen]

In three hours today, 17th February in Sydney - on Gadigal country - I’m doing an artist talk in Chindia: Stories from the Artists. I’ll be on sometime tween 2.00pm - 4.00pm and will do my best to live feed my section in my story, data providing. In part I’ll be poetically narrating a slide show based on my Coconut Legacy series, my allegorical life story from conception to death, which came out of an Australia Council funded self directed residency including mentorships with Emory Douglas and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashina in Oakland, California - Ohlone Land - in 2014. Venue: 107, 107 Redfern St, Redfern (wheelchair accessible, accessible bathrooms), it costs $15 and is nearly sold out, pre bookings essential, no sales on door. Msg me if you're of the diasporas or First Nations and price is out of reach, I have 2 comps left. The talks are related to an exhibition, Chindia which features work by six visual artists exploring cultural and national identity, politics, displacement and diaspora histories of those with Chinese and Indian heritage. The exhibition is on from 15 – 26 February 2018 at a different venue @gaffagallery, Level 1, 281 Clarence St Sydney. Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 10am -6pm / Saturday: 11am – 5pm / Sunday: Closed. Free entry. (not wheelchair accessible, one flight of stairs). Even though the title Chindia sounds like a fusion food restaurant to me, should be interesting... Image: Family Tree (2012), fibre-tip marker, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint pen on cotton paper, 96.5 × 127 cm (38 × 50 in). Collection of the University of Queensland. #textaqueen #selfportrait #babyelephant #elephanttrunk #chicobabies #coconutpalm #milk #goa #southasiandiaspora #nonwhitefeminism (at Redfern)