Indian ocean current : six artistic narratives / Prasannan Parthasarathi.

"The Indian Ocean has been the subject of extensive historical enquiry, but the current ramifications of this long history have received less scholarly attention. This catalog for an exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, curated by Prasannan Parthasarathi and Salim Currimjee, brings together essays that contextualize the work of six contemporary artists from the region. Through a variety of mediums and forms, from watercolors to videos, collages, sculptures, and photographs, Shiraz Bayjoo, Shilpa Gupta, Nicholas Hlobo, Wangechi Mutu, Penny Siopis, and Hajra Waheed grapple with the past, present, and future of the Indian Ocean in their artistic narratives. With an interdisciplinary team of authors, drawn from environmental studies, postcolonial studies, literature, and history, Indian Ocean Current brings multiple lenses to bear on the work of the six artists. Essayists trace the plural societies that were created in the Indian Ocean as a consequence of migration, both voluntary and involuntary, in the Age of Empire when European powers dominated the ocean. In the mid-twentieth century decolonization transformed these societies and created new nation-states that were divided by, at times, hastily erected borders. Finally, these borders are now losing their meanings, for the rising waters of the Indian Ocean due to global warming do not respect such human-made divisions, threatening life itself, both human and non-human"-- Provided by publisher.