Opening: Deities Part I & II

Presented by Chhaya CDC. Co-sponsored by the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.

Chhaya CDC presents the opening reception for its inaugural art exhibition at the organization’s Richmond Hill Center gallery space. Andil Gosine‘s (A/P/A Institute at NYU Visiting Scholar) work entitled Deities Part I & II was born out of his participation in Project Prithvi, a monthly clean-up of Jamaica Bay led by Queens-based organization, Sadhana. Chhaya is thrilled to extend this work and showcase the pre-eminent Indo-Caribbean artist’s digital prints, and debut new ceramic works that seek to “modernize” heritage objects. The exhibition runs through Friday, December 13, 2019.

“I started to make these offerings to water as long as I’ve known myself. Every time we went to the beach, the first thing my grandmother taught me to do was to find a flower and offer it to the ocean, with a prayer to Mother Earth. Each Divali, a ‘puja’ would be performed at my parents’ home and the (usually entirely biodegradable) materials from it were supposed to be left at a river bank. There was something quite beautiful about growing up with that practice. But rituals have to change with the times and context. Encountering those idols at Jamaica Bay, most of them made from plastic or other toxic materials, I felt conflicted: they were beautiful and ugly; they elicited a warm sentimentality but they were also evidence of my own self-destructive habits. These offerings were supposed to offer a kind of reverence for nature, but they were actually destructive to the environment.” —Andil Gosine

RSVP

This venue has stairs and is not accessible for wheelchair users. Questions? Please email info@chhayacdc.org.

Named “one of the most exciting Caribbean artists working right now” (Island Origins Magazine, 2019), Andil Gosine draws on themes of migration, ecology and desire to create multimedia conceptual works. Professor of Artistic Practices at York University in Toronto, Gosine’s recent solo exhibitions include Coolie Coolie Viens, which explored the legacy of Indian indentureship programs and the subsequent migrations of Indo-Caribbean peoples to cities in North America and Europe, and All the Flowers, which reflected on the impact of migration during adolescence. His work in the Queens community include the portraiture project Cane Portraiture: (Made In Love) at the inaugural Indo-Caribbean Alliance gala in 2013, his presentation of the performance Our Holy Waters, And Mine at the Queens Museum in 2014, and part I of the Deities exhibition at the RISE Center earlier this year.

Gosine has authored numerous scholarly articles in journals and anthologies, and is co-author of Environmental Justice and Racism in Canada: An Introduction. His current research “Art in a Crisis Climate” explores the potential of artistic practice to secure just environmental futures, and his next solo exhibition rêvenir, will open in Trinidad in early 2020. He is a 2019-20 Visiting Scholar at the A/P/A Institute at NYU.