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Press Release
CARE Package c/o New Delhi, IndiaCurated by Ombretta Agró Andruff in collaboration with the artistsOpening Reception: Friday, November 8th, 2013. 6:30pm onwardsIndia International Centre Follow the project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ IIC is thrilled to announce its upcoming exhibition, CARE Package c/o New Delhi, India, with an opening reception onNovember 8th, 2013. The show runs from November 7–15, 2013. Inspired by the concept of “CARE Package”, the exhibition brings together five international women artists from Asia or of Asian descent, touching venues in North America as well as Asia. The exhibition debuted in the USA at Twelve Gates Gallery in Philadelphia (October 2012) and is traveling next to IIC, New Delhi before going on to Phnom Penh, Cambodia [the city named in the title changes according to the hosting location]. A rich tradition exists throughout Asian countries of gift packages exchanged as social contract and, while unwritten, they embody strong cultural, social, political and economic codings. In North America, care packages are associated with gifts sent from loved ones to their children and youth who are away from home (usually off to camp, college, or the military). Historically the CARE package was the unit of aid at the core of the food relief effort developed in 1945 by the USA-based humanitarian CARE organization and was sent to a large number of Europeans at risk of starvation in the wake of World War II. It soon became an icon of American generosity and global leadership. In an era where the concept of “American generosity and global leadership” is a far cry from its meaning during the post-war years and very much up for debate, the participating artists tell stories that grew out of their own personal history and cultural heritage to tackle issues of nationhood, race, gender, religion, and economic exploitation on a world scale, in the context of emergent global capitalism. Storytelling and a deep interest in history and untold stories is a shared strategy amongst this newly formed collective of interdisciplinary women artists who have historical and contemporary links to disparate geographies such as India, Pakistan, Japan, Cambodia, Canada and the USA. In a grass roots diplomatic effort, they are collaborating with an Italian, New York/ Miami-based curator to conduct a trans-cultural dialogue between their works, their countries of origin, and the intersections and migrations between. Artists: Shelly Bahl (born in Benares, living between New York and Toronto); Shelly Jyoti (Born in Rohtak, living in New Delhi); Laura Kina (born in Riverside, CA, to an Okinawan father and Basque/Anglo mother, and living in Chicago); Saira Wasim (born in Lahore, living in California); and Cambodian-American Anida Yoeu Ali (born in Battambang, Cambodia, raised in Chicago, currently living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia). For more information, contact curator Ombretta Agro’ in Miami ombretta@ombrettaagro.com This New Delhi exhibition is organized by India International Centre. |
