Meera Sethi: SAVAC Member Exhibition

17 December, 2007

401 Richmond St. W., VMAC Gallery (fourth floor)

Opening reception: Monday 17 December, 2007, 7–9:00pm

Meera Sethi is a visual artist, graphic designer, photographer and occasional writer living and working in Toronto.

Her multi-disciplinary artwork addresses the joys and challenges of living in a third space where values and images from two distinct cultures collide creating ruptures, fissures and hybrid ways of being and doing. This diasporic experience finds expression in the many references to Indian and North American popular and not-so-popular culture found in her work.

As a photographer, Meera is interested in capturing the currents of first and second generation South Asian lives in Toronto. She does this by documenting people, interiors and specific cultural practices. More recently, she has begun photo project called Shirt Tales that rests between documentary and fashion photography and captures the strong spirits of fabulous, young South Asian women in Toronto.

Having worked as a graphic designer for over 10 years, Meera’s aesthetic follows two distinct paths to visual communication: a clean, minimal modernist approach and a hyper-active, populist and excessive approach. Her work with the Wellspring Cancer Support Foundation demonstrates the first approach and her with Besharam, Toronto’s monthly South Asian club night demonstrates the second.

Meera holds a BFA from York University (Toronto) and an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies also from York University. Her MA thesis explored the work of Jamelie Hassan, Sarindar Dhaliwal and Jin-Me Yoon in the context of issues of diaspora, memory, identity and representation.