Roshani Thakore
Artist Bio
Roshani Thakore was born in Decatur, Georgia and moved to Portland after spending almost 20 years in New York City. She uses organizing strategies, research, and conversations to understand a site and context. Her work has been exhibited at the Queens Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Gateway Project, Governor’s Island, White Box, Aicon Gallery and other art spaces in the Northeast. She co-organized Movement to Power, the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective’s art and activism public project raising awareness of gender-based violence issues. Since 2019 she is the Artist-in-Residence at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, a statewide, grassroots organization, uniting Asians and Pacific Islanders to achieve social justice. She received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NY and is a 2020 graduate of the Art and Social Practice MFA program.
The racialized experience is embedded within the constructs of the United States. As a newcomer to Portland, I use my artistic practice to excavate the city’s intentional exclusionary policies and practices and center the histories which have been omitted. These works are from the communities of color living and with histories in East Portland, a site which is one of the most culturally diverse census tracts in Oregon, home to many recent immigrants, and a neighborhood vulnerable to displacement due to gentrification.
Roshani Thakore uses art to broaden an understanding of place, uncover histories, elevate voices, and expand a sense of belonging, all with the hope of reconstructing power. She uses her positionality and power to complicate, leverage, and advocate with people who have been marginalized to transform systems of oppression through political and community education and acts of resistance.
Roshani cannot make this work alone and is extremely grateful for the folks who have collaborated and contributed in making this happen including, Alex Chiu, Alley Pezanoski-Browne, Candace Kita, Christian Bauer, Derrick Spotts, garima thakur, John Akira Harrold, Khanh Pham, Lahaina Phillip, Laura Glazer, Lisa Jarrett, Lo Moran, Maiyee Yuan, Maya Munoz-Tobon, maximiliano, Melanie Stevens, Misha Belden, Roberta Ando, Saleshni Sundar, Sarah Farahat, Sharita Towne, Stephanie Madrid, and Toni-Tabora Roberts.
A.
Waiting for 2042*
2018 – present
In 2008, national media publications reported that the U.S. population of White Americans will lose the majority status in the year 2042. This piece will build throughout the exhibition with posters of the events or resistance
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color imagine that will take place between now and 2042. These flyers will be a part of the Radical Archives of 2042, an archive containing the visions of resistance by people in the U.S. from 2018 - 2042. In the year 2042, an exhibition of the collection will be on display.
*Title borrowed from Hari Kondabolu.
B.
East Portland Art + Justice Lab, Lab Coats
2020
The East Portland Art + Justice Lab is a conceptual platform that amplifies the knowledge and resources available in areas of resilience, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity, and resourcefulness directly by the people themselves. These Lab Coats are to be used by Lab participants with the question, “What kind of experiments would you try if you knew your ancestors would have your back.” The backs of each lab coat have a portrait of an Asian/Pacific Islander activist crowdsourced by community members. The logo on the front was hand-stitched by Roshani and her mother, Minaxi Thakore.
Visitors can wear the coats in the gallery space.
C.
Saleshni’s Words
2020
Vinyl quotes
In a conversation for TBA’s Food Program 2019 publication, Big Elephant Kitchen co-owner, Saleshni Sundar, talks about her and her family’s values for their restaurant embedded in their culture. The two quotes refer to their desire to create a place that felt like family within the community. They wanted to make sure it was affordable, convenient, and for anyone who was interested in enjoying Fijian cooking and culture.
D.
East Portland Cooks!
2020
Risograph printed food zine on table
The East Portland Art + Justice Lab invited community members to share family recipes for our Monthly Community Dinner Series (temporarily postponed because of COVID-19). Please take a zine home to try out and share your experience with us at @eastpdxartjusticelab on Instagram or with Roshani at roshani@apano.org. (SEE PDF BELOW)
E.
Some Filipino Stories
2020
Acrylic
The East Portland Art + Justice Lab invited community members to share photos and stories of their family history for a community-generated archive. Toni-Tabora Roberts identifies as Filipino-American and submitted these photos. At the bottom, Toni’s parents Sol and Tes (couple on the right) and their best friends, Tita Menchie and Tito Mandy, (on the left) in Lakewood, Ohio pose for a group photo. They all met in medical school in the Philippines and their families are “BFFs” to this day. Toni loves the photo because “it just shows how long our histories as a family are.” Tita Menchie passed away in 2019 which makes this even more precious. Above that image, is a group photo of Filipino family friends’ road trip stops from Ohio to Tennessee for the 1984 World’s Fair with all of the children wearing their World’s Fair t-shirts. At the top is a family portrait of Toni, her younger brothers Eric and Mark, and her parents, and to the left and right of that family portrait are her brothers playing guitars.
Layout by Roshani Thakore. Painting by Alex Chiu.
F.
Living Culture: Past, Present, and Future
2019
Printed Acrylic
This piece looks at displacement history in Northeast and Southeast Portland of Black and Asian community members.
Visitors should open the piece to reveal the histories, not once but twice.
East Portland Cooks_EMAIL_020121 (1).pdfEast Portland Cooks!
Risograph printed food zine on table
The East Portland Art + Justice Lab invites community members to share family recipes for our Monthly Community Dinner Series (temporarily postponed because of COVID-19). Please try out and share your experience with us at @eastpdxartjusticelab on Instagram or with Roshani at roshani@apano.org.
