Outerwhere is a new body of work in which Sethi alters and adorns the inner linings of 12 winter coats. The winter coat is the first-acquired and single-most important item of clothing for newcomers when landing in cold climates. Presented within a circle, Outerwhere shares stories related to diasporic South Asian experiences and themes of migration, identity, historical trauma, resilience, and memory.
The artist would like to acknowledge the Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support of the Outerwhere series.
Outerwhere is one of two exhibitions featuring the work of artist, Meera Sethi. Sethi's exhibition Cotton Exchange is on view at our Preston gallery.
About the Artist: Meera Sethi is a contemporary artist with an intuitive and research-based practice that moves across painting, drawing, fibre, illustration, performance, and social practice. Her work sits at the intersection of the subjugated body and histories of cloth with a particular focus on South Asia and it’s diasporas. She is interested in the making, wearing, and disposing of cloth; clothing as a form of self-expression and resistance; and the ways by which textile is constituted over vast geographies. Through her work, she delves deep into our understanding of the self, the body, cloth and clothing, including it’s histories, resonances, and possibilities.
Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in the permanent collection of the Royal Ontario Museum and the Wedge Collection. She lives and works in the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Mississaugas of the Credit River.