Event

The Third Space: Unfurling Diasporic Arts of South Asia presents: The Artists Talk with Arooj Aftab and Shahzia Sikander 

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This culminating event will look to the future of diasporic art as it contextualizes a shared narrative- a colonized past and an imperial present. Fariha Khan, Asian American Studies Co-Director, will be in conversation with Shahzia Sikander, a visual artist who has redefined contemporary understandings of diaspora and difference and Arooj Aftab, whose work as a musician has transcended genres and histories. This talk will showcase the global interconnectedness of each artist’s work as they redefine the unfurling of South Asian American Diasporic Arts. This event is open to the University and the Philadelphia community and will include a Q&A.  

The Third Space is a program series that seeks to highlight Diasporic Arts of South Asia as a distinct, expansive, and emergent tradition within American contemporary art. This four-part series will combine artistic practice and scholarship to envision a cultural consciousness within the art industry that also acknowledges the diasporic artist, their transnational experience of identity, place, and time, as a primary grounding for the conception, aesthetics, and impact of their work. The Third Space presents an examination into American contemporary art, utilizing scholarship to unravel artistic expressions of the diaspora and transnational identity within the American socio-political landscape. 

The Third Space is funded by the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation and is a collaboration between Twelve Gates Arts (12G)  and The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania (ASAM). This project is a four-part program series curated by founder and Executive Director of 12G. Aisha’s curation will build from the gallery’s decade-long experience presenting diasporic artists of South Asia. In partnership with ASAM, this series presents an additional layer of interrogation into American Contemporary Art, utilizing scholarship to unravel artistic expressions of the diaspora and transnational identity within the American socio-political landscape. The series will take place at the University of Pennsylvania.