#bollywouldnt

Hey QTs of the South Asian diaspora in London right now - I’m still ‘casting’ for a new portrait series called Bollywouldn’t. Looking for a few more folks to conceptually collaborate and pose for portraiture in the style of Bollywood (and other Desi) vintage movie posters, portraying storylines of de-colonial resistance to deconstruct the usual ‘isms of the genre. If you’d like more information please DM me with your email address and/or suggestions of people - tags and reposts welcome. I’m in London til the end of August, briefly Berlin in June. This pic is a detail of Exotic Escape from my previous re-imaginings of (future) history - 'We Don't Need Another Hero' series of post-apocalyptic movie poster portraits portraying BIPOCs as survivors of the apocalypses of colonialism. #bollywood #bollywouldnt #exoticescape #desi #decolonialfiction https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxk4flnltR6/?igshid=76j35xxfuck7

This work (which appears as March in my 2019 Calendar) seems appropriate to post whilst announcing that I’ve been granted an @auscouncilarts residency in London, UK for 6 months starting February 2019 at ACME London. I’ll burning up with anticipation to partner with Project Mission Gallery @project.mission.gallery to develop a portrait series and performance event called Bollywouldn’t. Queer and Trans* people of the South Asian diaspora will be asked to collaborate, posing in Bollywood movie poster style portraits portraying storylines of de-colonial resistance. More details later, including plans for other London bonfires. #textaqueen #bollywouldnt #bollywoodremix #gobacktowhereyourcoloniserscamefrom image: Let Them Lie (2016): indian ink marker, watercolour, coloured pencil and synthetic polymer paint on cotton paper, 112 × 77 cm The western proverb to ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ is set alight here as an allegory for colonial apologism and denial. The resting dog is a Rampur hound, bred into existence by a Nawab of Rampur state during the British Raj in India. The bloodlines of the English greyhound and the ferocious Tāzī hound from Afghanistan were combined to create a more obedient hunting dog, highly desired by the Maharajahs and the rich. Today the breed exists as a rare pet, owned primarily by India’s upper-caste financial elite, many of whom carry nostalgia for the greater material wealth their family possessed under British rule. The artist is naked and awake, embracing the symbolic sleeping animal as they lie upong the Union Jack, their bodies about to be immolated in a fire resembling the inverted maps of India and Sri Lanka. (at London, United Kingdom)