SULTANA'S DREAM

SAWCC’s 10th Anniversary Exhibition

August 4-31, 2007

Thursday Evening Events August 9, 16, 23 at 7pm

Opening Saturday August 4, 7-9 pm

Open and free to public

Special Preview Reception, Saturday, August 4, 6-7 pm (minimum $30.00 donation)

Free exhibition catalogue

Wine compliments of Billimoria Wines & Krait Beer

Complimentary admission to the benefit party

Benefit Party, Saturday, August 4, 9-12 pm ($15 admission)

Featurning DJ Rekha and DK aka Bollygirl

Click here to for advanced donations (please print receipt and present at entrance).

Tickets will be available at the door.

SAWCC (South Asian Women’s Creative Collective) is an organization dedicated to the advancement, visibility and development of emerging and established South Asian women artists. SAWCC provides a forum for South Asian women artists to profile their creative and intellectual work, and network with other South Asian women artists, educators, community workers and professionals.

As the art world celebrates the work of women artists this year, and as SAWCC commemorates their 10th anniversary, this exhibition at Exit Art will contribute to the spectacle in SAWCC’s truly collective fashion. Sultana’s Dream, curated by Jaishri Abichandani, Founder of SAWCC, will feature collaborative works and participatory projects that have been produced through a process of dialogue between at least two South Asian women artists – across disciplines that include: visual artists and writers, dancers, filmmakers, musicians etc. Sultana’s Dream will include the work of established South Asian women artists such as Shahzia Sikander and Chitra Ganesh, as well as emerging or lesser known South Asian women artists selected from an open call for submissions. Including over 30 artists of Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani, Nepali, Afghan, Kuawaiti and Iranian descent, Sultana’s Dream showcases the spectrum of South Asian women’s intellectual and aesthetic perspectives.

The exhibition’s title is a reference to the classic short story “Sultana’s Dream” by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain. In the story, the typical Muslim custom of consigning women to relative seclusion is reversed; in the feminist utopia of “Sultana’s Dream” the women make fantastic advances in the public sphere while men are relegated to the private sphere. Like the story, this exhibition underscores the innate potential of women’s collective action. In Index of the Disappeared, the artists Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani will create an installation composed of suspended neon signs and direct-applied vinyl lettering in English with Urdu, Arabic and Hindi hand-painted on the walls and aluminum signs in the style of the old countries. The words and phrases featured in this installation will be taken from the artists’ archive of official documents, ephemera and testimony that traces how censorship and data blackouts after 9/11 have created real disappearances in immigrant, dissenting, and other communities across the US. In the sound installation Lota Stories, the visitor will hear men and women who hid their use of a lota, a water vessel typically used in bathrooms in South-Asia, from their American friends, lovers and roommates. Alternately humorous and poignant, Lota Stories underscores how the pressures of assimilation can impact even the most mundane of rituals.

ARTISTS

Samira Abbassy, Jaishri Abichandani, Fariba Alam, Mouna Andraos, Siona Benjamin, Anjali Bhargava, Anna Bhushan, Mareena Daredia, Sharmila Desai, Chitra Ganesh, Asha Ganpat, Mariam Ghani, Rajkamal Kahlon, Emily Jacir, Mona Kamal, Jesal Kapadia, Sarita Khurana, Swati Khurana, Yamini Nayar, Vicky Moufawad-Paul, Carol Pereira, Sreshta Premnath, Fatima Al Qadiri, Monira Al Qadiri, Sadia Rehman, Prerana Reddy, Ela Shah, Asma Ahmed Shikoh, Shahzia Sikander, Sonali Sridhar, Anahita Vossoughi, 6 + women’s art collective, and SAFED STUDIO.

EVENTS AT EXIT ART

THURSDAY AUGUST 9, 7:00-9:00 PM

Experimental Film and Video Program Co Presented by 3rd I New York Film Collective

Curated by Prerana Reddy, former SAWCC Board member and Director of Public Events at the Queens Museum of Art

THURSDAY AUGUST 16 7.00-9.00 pm

Literary Panel Co Presented by the Asian American Writers Workshop

Curated by Anjali Goyal, SAWCC Board member and Programs coordinator at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop

THURSDAY AUGUST 23, 7:00-9:00 PM

Visual Artists and Curators Panel

Curated by SAWCC Board members Mareena Daredia and Sadia Rehman of Bose Pacia Gallery

FUNDERS

This exhibition and catalog are supported by a generous grant from Catharine and Jeffrey Soros.

Additional exhibition support provided by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Starry Night Fund at The Tides Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Exit Art’s Board of Trustees and our members.

Public programming support provided by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE

“Sultana’s Dream” is the second exhibition in a new international initiative at Exit Art of projects presenting international artists and ideas that are under recognized in New York City.

ABOUT EXIT ART

Exit Art is an interdisciplinary laboratory for contemporary culture that explores the rich diversity of voices that continually shape art and ideas. Since it’s founding in 1982 by Directors Jeanette Ingberman and Papo Colo, Exit Art has presented over 2,500 artists and has grown from a pioneering alternative art space, bringing attention to the work of under-recognized artists, into a model cultural center for the 21st century. With a substantial reputation for curatorial innovation and depth of programming in diverse media, Exit Art’s exhibitions, performances and programs respond to culturally resonant themes, empowering artists to redefine their artistic sensibility. Exit Art is internationally recognized for its unmatched spirit of inventiveness, commitment to supporting artists, and consistent ability to anticipate the newest trends in the culture. A place where different disciplines and audiences converge and cross-pollinate, it is a key site for excavating the unwritten histories of contemporary art and culture.

Exit Art is located at 475 Tenth Avenue at 36th Street. Exit Art is open each Tuesday through Thursday, 10 am – 6 pm; Friday, 10 am – 8 pm; Saturday, noon – 8 pm Closed Sunday and Monday. There is a suggested donation of $5. For more information, the public may call 212-966-7745 or visit www.exitart.org.