In response to a great honour and with excitement,
Usha Seejarim was invited in March to present a talk at The Centre for India
Studies in Africa (CISA). Being of Indian
descent, Seejarim spoke on her long standing preoccupation with the everyday and how this
has been articulated in her art making. Her presentation demonstrated the development of this interest
through a discussion of her previous works which led up to her recent body of
work Venus at Home, currently on
exhibit at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG). Venus at
Home explores concepts of domesticity and gender roles through the artworks
created from used found, household objects such as brooms, mops and irons. All
the ‘material’ on the exhibition was donated by friends and neighbours, further
infusing the work with their original owner’s individual histories.
“Related to the search for meaning in
the ordinary is a search for identity. It is the relationship of oneself to all
this ‘stuff’ that seems to define our existence. It is an analysis of identity
further than culture, nationality, gender and heritage. It is a personal
investigation of the self and the relationship of the self to its environment;
an understanding of oneself beyond the labels of being female and African,
beyond being a mother, and an artist”, says Seejarim.
The Centre for Indian Studies in Africa
(CISA) was established at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits),
Johannesburg towards the end of 2007, the first in Africa to focus on India.
CISA promotes teaching, research and public activities concerning the Indian
sub-continent, its links to Africa and the Indian Ocean, and builds on the
multi-faceted networks developed with Indian universities, research institutions
and public agencies. The Centre’s public activities are part of its mandate to
contribute to the consolidation of economic, political and cultural relations
between India and countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia.
“The CISA aims to have a comparison between India and South Africa on
historical and current issues and challenges; and have connections between
India and South Africa and the rest of Africa. With such goals in mind, the
organisation has to employ creative ways to achieve them”.
On 24 April, CISA will be screening a
film on issues of gender,
domesticity and labour titled Lesser Human by Dir K. Stalin, to accompany Usha Seejarim’s exhibition
(untitled) of new and old works.
Event: Film Screening
– Lesser Humans by Dir K. Stalin
Date: Wednesday
24 April 2013
Time: 16h00 - 18h00
Venue: Committee
Room, CISA, 36 Jorrissen Street
This is part of an
on-going dialogue with the South African artist Usha Seejarim whose work through
a series of installations employing brooms looks at issues of gender,
domesticity and labour, in her exhibition Venus at Home currently
on at the Johannesburg Art Gallery. This film explores the inhuman link between
brooms, scavenging and caste in India.
“The film is about
manual scavenging in India which has won several awards and helped to put the
issue of untouchability in contemporary India on the agenda for numerous
international development agencies. It investigates the lives of ‘manual scavengers,’ the community at the
lowest rung of the caste system whose inhuman caste-based occupation is to
manually dispose of human excreta”.
Lesser Human, award winning film of:
Excellence Award,
Earth Vision Film Festival, Tokyo, 1999
Best Film, New Delhi
Video Festival, 1999
Silver Conch, 5th Mumbai
International Film Festival, 1998
Special Mention,
Amnesty International Film Festival, Amsterdam, 1998
For further information contact Prof. Dilip Menon, Mellon Chair in Indian Studies dilip.menon@wits.ac.za