SAVAC International Lecture Series Presents: Peter White

 

Peter White

24 September, 2004. 2:30pm

Innis Town Hall, Innis College, 2 Sussex Avenue, University of Toronto

 

Peter White presents an informative historical and critical context with which to encounter Vivan Sundaram's exhibition, discussing in depth the artist’s aunt Amrita Sher-Gil, one of the most important early modernists in Indian art, as well as Vivan Sundaram's own contribution to the changing practice in India a generation later.

Vivan Sundaram, a senior artist based in New Delhi, India, digitally reworks family photographs made by his grandfather, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil. Playing a starring role in many of the works is the artist’s aunt Amrita Sher-Gil, one of India’s iconic modern artists. Sundaram’s works collapse time and space, transforming objects of history into contemporary fictions. The politics of the past are foregrounded in an interrogation that is ultimately about the present.

 

Peter White is an independent curator and writer based in Montréal who is active in South Asian affairs. White is currently vice president and program chair of CERAS (South Asia Research and Resource Centre) in Montréal. He was the principal organizer of Moving Ideas: A Contemporary Cultural Dialogue with India, a multi-year project of exhibitions, events and programs that took place in India and Canada (2000-02). Re-take of Amrita made its Canadian debut in 2001, traveling from Montreal to Vancouver as part of Moving Ideas.

Vivan Sundaram was born 1947 in Shimla and now lives and works in New Delhi, India. He has had numerous solo exhibitions in India, Europe, Canada, and most recently the U.S. His work has been included in numerous group exhibitions and international biennials including Kwanju (1997) and Johannesburg (2000).