“Belonging is the feeling of security and support when there is a sense of acceptance, inclusion, and identity for a member of a certain group.
The show invites artists who have created/co-created spaces/artworks honoring their personal needs, desires, or responsibilities while taking a sense of agency and power over their circumstances. The show takes from Audre Lorde’s famous quote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
We are interested in diverse artistic practices centered around self-care through which artists from marginalized communities connect with the external world and their own experience. This includes understanding interpersonal acts of compassion, community care, and what it means to be there for one another.”
Location: Lindsay Dirkx Brown Art Gallery; Located inside the San Ramon Community Center – 12501 Alcosta Blvd. San Ramon, 94583
Exhibition dates: September 6 – October 28, 2022
Hours: Mon-Fri 8 am – 5 pm, (Sat and Sun, maybe open depending on special events at the site)
Opening reception: September 10, 2022 3:30-6 pm
Featured Artists:
Arlene Biala (presented 3 poems at the opening reception)
Bernali Ghosh, Betty Nobue Kano, Irene Wibawa, Kathy Fujii-Oka, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, Maggie Yee, Manon Wada, Namita Paul, Nirmal Raja, Reiko Fujii, Shailly Sharma Bhatnagar
Once again, InnerEye Arts led by curator Pallavi Sharma, presents an important and timely exhibit . This exhibit and its premise speaks to me about how we grapple more than two years into a global pandemic, and decades into an increasingly extreme climate emergency. It is easy, and perhaps even a privileged way, to deal with the challenges we are facing, as inevitable. Giving up is not an option for many people who are facing these crises. And as people continue to fight for their own future, they must also advocate for their own mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
In my response to this, I have created two new works: one focuses on the rollerskating community, through my own experience skating in my local group, Rich City Rollers. This work is titled Finding Rest and Joy. The second is a collaborative installation, Sending Love, with Maggie Yee, Manon Wada, Reiko Fujii and I, almost 3 years in the making using mail art as its medium as we connect through video meetings and electronic communications and through analog and physical mail art. For this work, we included mail art that has been exchanged, and also we created our self portraits.
I’m so honored to be exhibiting these works alongside all these incredible artists. As always, my deep gratitude goes to to the InnerEye Arts team and to Pallavi Sharma for creating space for artists like myself to show up and be seen.
