Longing to Be

Longing to Be (Detail,) 2020 Mixed Media

Maneesa
Veeravel

Artist Statement

Longing to Be

This is a meditation on belonging, exploring what it means to be a part of a ‘public’ space. The 36 hanging papers made of recycled paper, dried leaves, flowers and spices display words and illustrations in ink. Each paper includes the hopes of queer, trans and allied BIPOC folks, weaving a need for intentional spatial design and community building in the commons. A medicinal altar protects these sacred texts with sustainable elements of nature for resistance and a passing nod to history for remembrance. Cities live as social processes that are fluid in nature, the changing parts determine how minorities effect change or are made outsiders in the allocation, enforcement and categorization of space, order, culture and wealth.

I am grateful to be born and raised on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, as well as many other Indigenous communities who foster this ecology. My parents fled an ethnic war in Jaffna, Sri Lanka and settled in Ontario in 1989, having had their indigeneity dispossessed. I was born on the ancestral land of the First Nations of the Chippewa of Lake Simcoe (Beausoleil, Georgina Island and Rama) and the Mississauga of the North Shore of Lake Ontario (Alderville, Curve Lake, Hiawatha and Scugog Island) which was ceded under Williams Treaty’s false claims. My place on this land is an ever evolving process of learning and unlearning. I give thanks to the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Association of Ontario for the use of audio from their “In our Words” video series.

Click to hear audio component of ‘Longing to Be’

 

[1] Mark Fisher (2008) “Capitalist Realism, is there no alternative?” Zer0 books editorial.

Biography

Maneesa (they/he/she) is a creative residing on the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. As a Tamil, gender-queer survivor with chronic pain, their work reflects ancestral history, trauma and healing as it pertains to “home” and belonging. They’ve published and performed poetry, screened short films, displayed soundscapes, exhibited their art, and facilitated workshops. Maneesa values resourcing, creative expression and mindful experiences like bird watching, finger painting, kneading and lying on flat surfaces.

More Information

If you would like to know more about this Showcase, commission this artist, please contact SKETCH curatorialteambotaddress@sketch.ca@sketch.ca or sarahbotaddress@sketch.ca@sketch.ca .

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