wherever you are is called Here
wherever you are is called Here (non-flags/counter-flags/anti-flags)
2019
Screen print and weaving on rice bags
Twelve non-flags (14 x 25 in. each)
This work explores the ambiguous relationship between Here and home through the lens of memory and place. Interlacing personal imagery with political symbolism, these non-flags/counter-flags/anti-flags are created from rice bags, woven maps, photos, and stories of home from my grandmother. As we sewed the rice bags, I recorded my grandmother’s stories of forced migration from India during the 1947 Partition and later to the U.S. The audio is played in the gallery along with the installation. While the material and weaving techniques pay homage to my ancestral history of rice farming and rituals, the form and content symbolically subvert the function of hyper-nationalism.
Photos by Adam Bencomo
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