Ilū
Ilū attempts to explore and rectify sentiments of familial alienation across generations by representing a heart-to-heart conversation from parents to the children about the struggles and hurdles they have faced in order to provide better lives for their children.
Through the representation and mistranslation of these conversations in a mother tongue that is familiar yet murky as a second generation Australian-Indian, the communication barriers that emerge between the generations make the alienation felt between them apparent. However, this sentiment will be juxtaposed with an understanding built on a mutual experience of alienation and mistreatment in the new home-land, and the longing for an image of what the motherland once was.
Dhūsara (dusk) is a work that aims to challenge the prevalent ideology of colourism faced in South Asian communities. Dark skin, often referenced as “dusky”, has associations with unattractiveness and low social status in these communities. People of dark skin are almost never represented positively in the media. To subvert this, the work explores the beauty of those with melanin, and the strength, resilience and grace they possess through the referencing of goddess-like stances and royal postures. The work immortalises beautiful images of brown women that have been erased throughout the years whilst directly confronting the oppressive ideologies that bind brown women to this day.
Featuring: Nujhat Ahmed, Geirthana Nandakumaran, Sushmita Rahman, Meera Seermaran, Srisha Sritharan. Poem by Kripa Krithivasan
Monisha Chippada is an artist / designer currently based in Sydney, Australia. Her work is influenced by her life experiences and her Indian diasporic background, and creates her art for the purpose of representing minority voices, emotional growth and as an act of catharsis. Through textiles, film and interactive works she explores these experiences through the lens of a dreamer.
