“Pakistani ‘spy pigeon’ arrested in India,” announced BBC News in 2015, reporting on a bird found by a 14-year-old boy in the border village of Manwal, taken into custody by local police, and identified as a ‘suspected spy’ in their records. In Bani Abidi’s The News (2001), a double-channel video installation, the artist plays the roles of Indian and Pakistani state television newsreaders who relate disputes over a Pakistani hen that strays into Indian territory and lays eggs there. “Situation is tense but under control,” both sides insist. Using Abidi’s absurd yet hyperreal performance as a starting point, this presentation analyzes a growing preoccupation with nations, borders, and partitions in contemporary art from South Asia since the 1990s and a new approach to imagining the region.
When: Saturday, June 8, starting at 10:00 am
Where: Seattle Asian Art Museum Stimson Auditorium; 1400 E Prospect St., Seattle, WA 98112
ID: A woman with black hair, wearing black sleeveless blouse with bow, gold hoops and red lipstick, she is grinning. Blurred background of archived papers and books.