Curator Statement:

Take Me to the Water is an invitation to listen to the stories Monica Jahan Bose has collected from Katakhali Village and Washington, DC that impact us all. This exhibit speaks to our deep connection to water, the need to protect it, and reminds us of our memories with water.

Bose’s saris and kanthas invoke a floating monument of community action and resilience. She brings together art, activism, and community engagement with each embroidered kantha, sari, poem, song, performance, and work on paper. This immersive experience blends together all these creative practices and highlights her commitment to her long-time collaborative project, Storytelling with Saris, which she began in 2012.

As a curator, I am drawn to how Monica Jahan Bose’s work is rooted in storytelling and the technique with which she engages traditional forms. As a water person, I feel a deep resonance with her incorporation of water as both subject and medium — its symbolism, its urgency, and its connective power across cultures and bodies.

Artist statement:

My work draws on my family’s roots in Katakhali Village, Barobaishdhia Island, which is surrounded by multiple rivers and the Bay of Bengal.  After moving to the Washington area, I spent my youth with my friends exploring and playing at the C&O Canal, Great Falls, the Potomac River, and neighborhood pools. I discovered the Talking Heads in the late 1970’s in middle school, and listened to  “Take Me to the River” all the time. Water is a recurring theme in my work, speaking to the essentiality of water to life, its healing properties, its centrality in climate change, and its ability to destroy our homes, crops, and heritage.

“Take Me to the Water” presents a new body of work in keeping with my continuing practice.  I created a series of canvas paintings called “Water,” starting in 2006.  My ongoing socially engaged project Storytelling with Saris works (started in 2012) involves working in collaboration with women from my ancestral island along with residents of DC to create saris, climate pledges, poems, performances, and installations that speak to the intersection of climate, gender, and racial justice. I use the precolonial sari as a symbol of sustainability and renewal. Blue saris represent water, pools, and rivers.

In this exhibition, I have created new work using painting, embroidery, woodblock, and collage, reusing saris from the Storytelling with Saris project, including a faded sari from the pool-shaped installation at the “Swimming”public art project (2024, Marie Reed Plaza and Aquatic Center). The saris from my ongoing work have been used in multiple installations and performances, and worn by Katakhali women. Several used saris were cut, layered in three, and embroidered by me and the Katakhali women to create “kanthas,” a traditional art form where Bangladeshi women recycle old saris to create blankets and wraps. Woodblocks that I have designed have been repeated on the saris, the works on paper, and the kanthas.  The exhibition also includes a new performance film “Rising Up.”

“Take Me to the Water” speaks to our deep connection to water, and the need to protect our waters and our planet.