Artist's Talk

Please join us for the artist talk of Sharmila Samant this Thursday August 14th at 7PM
Art Gallery of Mississauga, 300 City Centre Drive, Mississauga, tel: 905 896 5088

Sharmila Samant, Against the Grain, 2008

FREE shuttle bus from Toronto

A bus will leave the front of 401 Richmond Street West at 6:30 PM and return at the same place for 9:00 PM.

Executive Director, Hank Bull and Curator Makiko Hara from Centre A as well as Executive Director, Haema Sivanesan from SAVAC will also be present to introduce the project and discuss their organizations.

Sharmila Samant (b. 1967) is a major contemporary Indian artist living and working in Mumbai. Her work deals with issues of local identity within the context of globalization. Samant examines the homogenizing effect of commodification and consumer culture in relation to developing economies. Visiting Canada for the first time, Samant will undertake research with the Goan community in Toronto, Mississauga and Vancouver and develop an installation and artist book project titled “Kathajaal: A Web of Stories”.

Kathajaal: A Web of Stories will examine factors informing the return immigration of Indo-Canadians to India. Samant uses a multi-disciplinary approach, working in photography, installation and video.

Samant states, “The projects I undertake involve eclectic collecting, documenting and recycling of urban debris, looking at the mundane and the profane. The works critique the market forces that define the cultural and art practices of the peripheral nations and question how our identities, within the global set up, can be sustained via a hybridization of our culture.”

Haema Sivanesan, Executive Director of SAVAC states, “Sharmila Samant is a significant international artist, whose work is rigorous, politically engaged and socially informed. It is a privilege to host her visit to Toronto, and to have her develop a project with the South Asian community here”

Samant’s work has been included in major international exhibitions and biennales including ”The Biennale of Sydney: Revolution – Forms that Turn” (2008); “Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India”, The Asia Society, New York, (touring, 2004 -2007); “Century City – Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis”, The Tate Modern, London, (2001).