This is a three-part outdoor performative intervention sponsored and funded by the Art Lives Here program. It will take place on June 4, 12, and 19 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Each day I will display 4 of the 12 collaborative saris from Storytelling with Saris. They will hang from high on top of the building so the entire 18-foot length can be seen. The saris were made outdoors and hung to dry and I want to recreate that visual sensation. I will interact with people on the street and those waiting for the bus and tell them about the women who made the saris. The idea is to make a public art installation in the street and engage with people who may not usually go into an art gallery. There will be a soundtrack with sounds of rural Bangladesh mingling with the urban noises at this intersection just beyond NE Washington DC. Many people will also be driving through the circle and notice these huge colorful fabrics hanging from the building. We will be giving out cards with photos of the four women whose saris are displayed each day along with biographies of these women.

This is a three-part outdoor performative intervention sponsored and funded by the Art Lives Here program. It will take place on June 4, 12, and 20 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Each day I will display 4 of the 12 collaborative saris from Storytelling with Saris. They will hang from high on top of the building so the entire 18-foot length can be seen. The saris were made outdoors and hung to dry and I want to recreate that visual sensation. I will interact with people on the street and those waiting for the bus and tell them about the women who made the saris. The idea is to make a public art installation in the street and engage with people who may not usually go into an art gallery. There will be a soundtrack with sounds of rural Bangladesh mingling with the urban noises at this intersection just beyond NE Washington DC. Many people will also be driving through the circle and notice these huge colorful fabrics hanging from the building. We will be giving out cards with photos of the four women whose saris are displayed each day along with biographies of these women.

This is a three-part outdoor performative intervention sponsored and funded by the Art Lives Here program. It will take place on June 4, 12, and 20 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Each day I will display 4 of the 12 collaborative saris from Storytelling with Saris. They will hang from high on top of the building so the entire 18-foot length can be seen. The saris were made outdoors and hung to dry and I want to recreate that visual sensation. I will interact with people on the street and those waiting for the bus and tell them about the women who made the saris. The idea is to make a public art installation in the street and engage with people who may not usually go into an art gallery. There will be a soundtrack with sounds of rural Bangladesh mingling with the urban noises at this intersection just beyond NE Washington DC. Many people will also be driving through the circle and notice these huge colorful fabrics hanging from the building. We will be giving out cards with photos of the four women whose saris are displayed each day along with biographies of these women.

Please join us for a discussion about the evolving role of art, and social practice art in particular, in raising awareness of social issues and influencing policy and social change. Do come and join in the discussion and also check out the Layer by Layer exhibition if you haven’t had the chance.

Moderator: Helen Frederick, artist, professor at George Mason University, founder of Pyramid Atlantic, and leader of the Search Project, a global initiative to research the ways diversity influences collaborative artistic experiences and supports social activism.

Panelists:

Monica Jahan Bose, artist, environmental lawyer/activist, creator of Storytelling with Saris project

J.J. McCracken, artist, creator of performances/installations addressing issues such as hunger and water resources, including Hunger, Philadelphia and Earth To Table; currently participating in the Green Acres exhibition at the Katzen Center

Siobhan Rigg, artist and professor of New Media at George Washington University, engaged with projects implicating food issues and political representation.

Terry Scott, producer and media consultant for the arts and social justice, currently working on Creation With Representation: Cultural Cartography, a public humanities mapping initiative in Ward 8 (Anacostia).

Hope to see our New York friends at the performance/installation of “Sublime Virtue” by Monica Jahan Bose in collaboration with many empowered women, using a 216 foot sari from “Storytelling with Saris.” Monica will be performing at 12 noon and 4pm on Saturday, September 28th, 2013, and at 12 noon on Sunday, September 29th, 2013. The performance is about 2 hours long. Location: 100 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (between Main and Washington Streets). Subway A or C to High Street.

Other performers: Reya Sehgal (performance assistant), Nandita Ahmed, Farhana Akhter, Anjali Bhargava, Anjali Goyal, Negin Moss, Josheen Oberoi, Sa’dia Rehman, and Laju Shah.

“Sublime Virtue” was created as part of an engaging and interactive performance art series presented by the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective at the Dumbo Arts Festival.

Click here for the Sublime Virtue Flyer and Statement.SUBLIME VIRTUE qr

Monica Bose will perform in the third edition of (e)merge Art Fair.

UNWRAPPED is inspired by the Indian mythological story of Draupadi, the eternal virgin who was married to five brothers, as well as the true story of Bose’s grandmother’s marriage at age seven. Speaking to women’s rights to education and over their own bodies, the performance involves wrapping and unwrapping the body with a 216-foot sari covered with writing by women from Bose’s grandmother’s village in Bangladesh, part of a collaboration called Storytelling with Saris.

Performance times:

Thursday, October 3, 2013 – 6:00 – 7:00pm
Sunday, October 6, 2013 – 12:00 – 1:15pm

UNWRAPPED is inspired by the Indian mythological story of Draupadi, the eternal virgin who was married to five brothers, as well as the true story of Bose’s grandmother’s marriage at age seven. Speaking to women’s rights to education and over their own bodies, the performance involves wrapping and unwrapping the body with a 216-foot sari covered with writing by women from Bose’s grandmother’s village in Bangladesh, part of a collaboration called Storytelling with Saris.