Dhiviya Prabaharan

ARTIST STATEMENT

This piece is an exploration of the question: what does it mean for us to be whole in a world that is so profoundly fragmented? It explores the constant of unbecoming and becoming. Woven into the threads of this piece are the archives, and imaginations of the past, present and future of myself, my family, my community, and the collective as a whole. This piece plus with the revived ancestral craft tradition of batik in my family. This piece also insists that the remembering of our wholeness is the greatest act of (r)evolution.

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Dhiviya Prabaharan, any pronouns, is a queer Tamil diasporic multi-disciplinary artist and community cultural worker based in Tkronto, Dish With One Spoon Treaty Territory, with ancestral roots in Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu and Chulipuram/Mavutapuram, Yaalpaanam.

Dhiviya creates from the heart under Padaippakam as a way of restoring joy and love, and transforming violence and the intensity of life. By using organic materials and dyes, the ritual of batik offers an immersive divergence to the struggle and heaviness that sometimes surrounds us.