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| Asha Ganpat | ||||
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| Statement As an indirect descendant of India and an infant migrant who grew up in the United States but returned often to her family in Trinidad, I easily slip into the role of outsider, the role of Other. I go through the motions and rituals of most of my cultural ancestry, yet nothing fits, I feel like a spy. I am primarily Indian and German with some French, Irish, and English in the mix (and rumors of Scottish and Chinese.) I have played with race since I knew I could; I have seamlessly passed as an Italian, Spaniard, Egyptian, Venezuelan, Native American...not one of the ethnicities I own. I have manipulated my visual identity to my favor with minimal effort and, much to my regular disappointment, have had to defend the truth of my ancestry. In playful response to my life-long racial dilemma, I have created Kali's Big Day Out. This installation extends to the viewer a theme-park style opportunity to become the goddess Kali. The line some draw to segregate races, the distinction between "us" and "them," is often as vast as the difference between human and god. I offer to the viewer candy to turn tongues red and a roadside Americana photo-op to step into Kali's most famous moment. The viewer will switch from mortal to god as easily as I move between racial divides. Bio Asha Ganpat is a sculptor who was born in Trinidad, WI and currently lives/works in New Jersey. She received her B.F.A. from Mason Gross, Rutgers University and M.F.A. from Montclair State University. Ganpat has shown at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Instituto di Cultura, Exit Art, the Noyes Museum, the Queens Museum, the Jersey City Museum and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Ganpat is an adjunct professor of sculpture at Montclair State University and Middlesex County College. |
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