Events
South Asia Institute is pleased to announce its new exhibition, “The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness,” in collaboration with the Paglees.
The Paglees is a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United States. Paglee or pagli means crazy woman in a number of South Asian languages. The Paglees are: Fawzia Khan, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Monica Jahan Bose, Nirmal Raja, Pallavi Sharma, Renluka Maharaj, and Shelly Bahl.
In their debut exhibition, The Paglees investigate – with fierceness, beauty, and wit – the impact on women of generations of patriarchy, religion, white supremacy, colonialism, violence, capitalism, and environmental plunder.
The title of the exhibition derives from Rosa Parks’ words: “There is just so much hurt, disappointment and oppression one can take. The bubble of life grows larger. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” (Rosa Parks: Writings, Notes and Statements,1956-58).
Featuring mixed-media works on paper, fabric, and canvas, sculpture, performance, photography, installation, and moving image, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness, questions and reframes the labeling of non-conforming women as crazy and the marginalization of immigrant women of color. This collective exhibition presents new decolonial narratives that center the reason and wisdom of brown women of the Global South and diaspora, and provide pathways to a creative feminist future. The Paglees believe in working in collaboration with other marginalized communities to build bridges and demand social, environmental, and legal justice for all.
We are excited to announce the Climate Hope project by Monica Jahan Bose presented by the Arlington Art Truck of Arlington County Government. Curated by Cynthia Connolly, eight activations will occur at various locations across Arlington, Virginia. Contribute to a community created art project by writing a poem, pledge, or an illustration directly onto an 18-foot-long cotton sari that is adorned by woodblocks from the artist’s ancestral village in Bangladesh. The poems and pledges will complete the sari which already includes climate themed wood block prints. On the last day, the public is invited to join a procession with over 70 feet of saris through an Arlington neighborhood to a waterway. Here is the PRESS RELEASE.
Activation dates:
Wednesday, April 3 – Barcroft School, not open to public
Sunday, April 7 – 9 am -1 pm – Columbia Pike Farmers Market, 2820 Columbia Pike
Saturday, April 20 – 8 an -noon – Lubber Run Farmers Market opening day, 4401 N Henderson Road
Sunday, April 21 – 11 am -5 pm – Earth Day, Every Day, 4500-4550 Cherry Hill Road
Sunday, May 5 – 9 am -1 pm – Fairlington Farmers Market opening day, 3308 S Stafford Street Special guest: Arlington Poet Laureate Courtney LeBlanc will be with us 9-11am
Thursday, May 16 – 3-7 pm – MoCA on the Move with MoCA Arlington at MET Park, South Elm Street between South 13th and South 14th Streets
Saturday, May 18 – 10 am -1 pm – Family Fun Day in the Park, Alcova Heights Park, 901 S George Mason Drive
Saturday, May 25 – 11 am-2:30 pm – Shirlington Library, 4200 Campbell Avenue ; 11-1: activation outside-(drop by anytime), 1-2:30: artist talk in library and community performance/procession from library to Jennie Dean park. There is limited space for the artist talk indoors. Free. Sign up here.
Check here for latest information
Image: Monica Jahan Bose in Water Resistance performance, Paris, France, 2019, photo credit: Amirul Arham
Please join us for an an art and poetry workshop to cocreate work for SWIMMING, a new public art project that explores the deep and essential connections we have to water as our world faces increased flooding and rising sea levels due to climate change. Our host is Moms Clean Air Force. In honor of Mental Health Month, we will be focusing on healing, poetry, and hands on art to increase mindfulness, reduce climate anxiety, and improve mental health. When installed in June 2024 at the Marie Reed Community & Aquatic Center in Washington DC, SWIMMING will feature a “pool” of art-embellished saris, along with a sound walk, performances, film screenings, and poetry readings. Artist and climate activist Monica Jahan Bose will discuss the project and then lead a poetry and art workshop where we will create poetry and art on saris inspired by the healing properties of water and swimming and inequities in access. SWIMMING is part of Bose’s art and advocacy project Storytelling with Saris. Started over a decade ago, the project has fostered collaboration with women from Bose’s ancestral island in Bangladesh as well as residents of DC and people around the world.
ASL interpretation will be provided. Please email storytellingwithsaris@gmail.com with any questions or accommodation needs. Register for the event on Eventbrite.
Curator: Sarah Tanguy. Photography/livestream: Paris Preston Music & Sound Design: Sonia Herrero.
Community partners: Marie Reed Elementary School and Community & Aquatic Center, Adams Morgan Partnership BID, DC Arts Center, Calvary Women’s Services.
This project is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (22 solo shows, numerous group exhibitions, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing decade-long collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 12 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the the Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired and group of her paintings, saris, and archival materials for its collection. Monica has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
How can you literally draw attention to the issue of climate change? Participate in CLIMATE HOPE by artist Monica Jahan Bose, presented by the Arlington Art Truck and curated by Cynthia Connolly. Join us on Saturday, May 25 for the culminating event at Shirlington Library, an Artist Talk and Community Performance (1:00-2:30 p.m.) in which participants will have the opportunity to add climate pledges, drawings, and poetry to Bangladeshi saris, sew them together in a community sewing circle, and then carry the 80-100 foot-long-massive sari billowing with your messages of hope in a procession through the streets of Shirlington and across the Four Mile Run waterway to Jennie Dean Park. Address for the artist’s talk and performance: Shirlington Library, 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA. In the event of rain, the performance will be inside the library. All ages welcome and no sewing experience needed! Arlington County provides accommodations to individuals with disabilities upon request. Please contact us at least five (5) business days in advance.Phone: 703-228-5993 Email: Jberg@arlingtonva.us
This activation is part of an ongoing project called ‘Storytelling with Saris’ by Monica Jahan Bose. A multilayered collaborative art and advocacy project, it uses woodblock prints on saris, writing, oral history, performance, and film to empower communities in the U.S. and Europe to address climate justice in solidarity with the women of Katakhali Village, Barobaishdia Island, Bangladesh, Bose’s ancestral village situated on the frontlines of climate change. Through performance art and advocacy workshops and climate art actions in the U.S., Bangladesh, and Europe, communities are engaged to take action to fight against the devastation of our planet. Americans are learning about climate change and reducing climate anxiety through the project by writing poetry and making written commitments on saris in an act of cross-border solidarity.
Launching to acclaim in 2018 with a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arlington Art Truck was a finalist for Americans for the Arts’ 2019 Gard Award for Arts and Community Life. The Arlington Art Truck embodies the Arlington Arts mission to revolutionize the traditional model of an arts venue. Packed with digital and traditional creative tools, the “Truck” is a curated mobile toolbox for artists. From April through November, three artists-in-residence hit the streets engaging the public in art projects which are designed to blur the line between participant and presenter.
The community partner for this project is the County’s Eco-Action Arlington with guest partners Climate4Change. Learn how simple things you can do at home can help slow climate change.
About Monica Jahan Bose: Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, temporary installations, and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (23 solo shows, five large-scale public art projects, and more than 25 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing collaborative art and advocacy project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS (since 2012) with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 12 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, the BBC, Prothom Alo, and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. She was an artist delegate to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai, presenting sari installations, workshops, and film screenings. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
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SWIMMING, a temporary public art project by Monica Jahan Bose, explores the deep and essential connections we have to water as our world faces increased flooding and rising sea levels due to climate change. Participants in DC and Bangladesh join workshops to co-create poetry and art inspired by the healing properties of water and swimming and by inequities in access. SWIMMING will feature an outdoor “pool” of art-embellished saris, along with a VideoSoundscape, performances, film screenings, and poetry. The project is part of the ongoing climate justice collaboration Storytelling with Saris.
Lead Artist: Monica Jahan Bose
Curator: Sarah Tanguy
DCPS Collaboration: Valeria Monfrini, Art Teacher, Marie Reed Elementary School
Photography/Livestream: Paris Preston
Sound design: Sonia Herrero
Photography/livestream: Paris Preston
Sound design: Sonia Herrero
Marketing design/Social media: Jen Saavedra
Press/media inquiries: Kelly Davidson. Email: info@kellymavenmedia.com. Phone: 301-300-4011
Funded by the DC Commission on the Arts are Humanities.
Community partners: The Adams Morgan Partnership BID, Marie Reed Elementary School & Aquatic Center, The DC Arts Center, Calvary Womens Services, and Moms Clean Air Force.
Exhibition Schedule [All dates weather dependent]:
Location: Marie Reed Plaza, 2201 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009=
Exhibition dates June 6-20, 2024
Thursday, June 6, 2024 @ 5-8 PM: Opening Event. Dedication, poetry recital, and livestream starting at 6 pm.
Saturday, June 8, 2024 @ 3-5 pm: Artist/curator walkthrough talk at site
Tuesday, June 11, 2024 @ 7:30 pm: Walkthrough tour and screening “Swimming” short film as part of Adams Morgan Movie Night (film at dusk).
Saturday, June 15, 2024 @ 5 pm: Performance
Tuesday, June 18, 2024 @ 7:30 pm: Walkthrough tour and screening short film as part of Adams Morgan Movie Night
June 20, 2022 Final Day
Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist whose work spans painting, printmaking, film, performance, and installation. Her socially engaged work highlights the intersection of climate, racial, gender, and economic injustice through co-created workshops, art actions, and temporary installations and performances. She has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally (23 solo shows, five public art projecs, numerous group exhibitions, and more than 30 performances) including solo exhibitions at the Bangladesh National Museum and MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art Rome. Her ongoing decade-long collaborative project STORYTELLING WITH SARIS with women farmers from her ancestral island village has traveled to eight countries and 12 US states, engaging thousands of people. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the the Japan Times, Prothom Alo and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. The Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum has acquired and group of her paintings, saris, and archival materials for its collection. Monica has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate diploma in art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.
