Domestic Policy, curated by Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, featuring the works of Jaishri Abichandani, Shalalae Jamil, Asma Kazmi, Swati Khurana, Vandana Jain, Divya Mehra, Sa’dia Rehman, Gazelle Samizay, Apnavi Thacker. The works can be viewed on our website at ww.theguildny.com
This show will open on the 12th of Novemnber along with a panel discussion with the curator, artists, and guest panelists Dr. Radhika Subramaniam and Dr. Gayatri Gopinath, followed by Q&A, will be held on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 from 7:00–9:00 pm at the Gallery.
This exhibition addresses the various issues conjured by the words “domestic policy,” and their influence on contemporary life. The works in this show explore the various meanings of "domestic" and "policy," both separately and as they relate to one another, offering layered possibilities of meaning and interpretation.
Curator Rocío Aranda-Alvarado explains:
Domestic policies influence an individual’s experience of reality. Rules governing
behavior, gender, sexuality, free will, income, marital status, education and much more are developed and enforced by the state and are also known as public policies. Specifically, these signify the laws, programs, and decisions made by governments in relation to their citizens: the policies that in turn construct and influence national ideologies and behaviors. Frequently, these policies are a source of friction among people of various backgrounds and philosophical positions. Thus, the ability to be attentive to simultaneous realities and other experiences as informed by such policies can become a powerful tool for the artist.
In contextualizing the works, Aranda elaborates how each artist’s work reflects, debates, and discusses these ideas.
Asma Kazmi’s works present the viewer with images that bear visible outward signs of poverty and the objects associated with them and are a startling reminder of the vulnerability of the individual in relation to the economy, both local and global.
Shalalae Jamil’s powerful photographic imagery notes the “rules of engagement” in private spaces, underscoring the nature of power relationships in a single, unmistakable statement.
Divya Mehra’s sculpture, made from a neon sign that unequivocally states “I’m fucking you,” is enhanced by her explication of the work as “a mental position held passively by both parties in a dysfunctional relationship.”
Swati Khurana’s Wedding Trousseau relates to traditions and rituals relating to marriage and their influence on gender and the social roles of women. She notes: “To me, the seductive promises of rituals comprise a huge part of domestic policy.”
Gazelle Samizay’s beautiful and meditative video works recall the endless, repetitive acts that are a constant part of everyday domestic life, which turn into a kind of symbolic exorcism.
Sa’dia Rehman’s installation, Coming, addresses the artist’s movement from her native Pakistan to the United States, which caused problems in her own domestic sphere, and alludes to immigrant issues that occupy a tenuous and fraught place
among domestic policies.
Like immigration, law enforcement is also a significant chapter of domestic policy and is actively challenged from both liberal and conservative factions. In her commanding painting, Apnavi Thacker underscores both the role and the implication of law enforcement with her title, Moral Police Me.
Vandana Jain’s work, Heart and Hearth, addresses the health care reform debate,
currently one of the most contested issues in public policy. Using Tibetan prayer flags as her support, the artist has replaced the deity that usually occupies the center with an invented one by putting together various logos from the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry.
Jaishri Abichandani strives throughout her work to examine networks of power and how these are experienced on an individual and collective level. Her work, Allah hu Akhbar, is fashioned from leather whips, wire, nails, paint, and Swarovski crystals. The contradictory nature of these materials—intended simultaneously to repel and seduce—ironically tie together choice and obedience, dominance and submission, visual splendor and humility.
Throughout the works in this exhibition, the meanings of “domestic policy” are explored and redefined.
The show opens Nov 12th 2009 at The Guild, New York with an opening reception between 6:30 – 8:30 pm. The exhibition will continue to Dec 12th.
For further information or questions please contact me at 212.229.2110.
Regards,
Renuka Sawhney
Director
The Guild Art Gallery
45 west 21st street
suite # 39
New York, NY 10010
212 229 2110
201 218 5885
www.theguildny.com
www.guildindia.com
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