Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada

Vision Exchange: Perspectives from India to Canada brought together the work of 20 contemporary artists from India and artists of Indian heritage living in Canada, the largest exhibition of its kind to be presented in Manitoba. The exhibition takes its title from Akbar Padamsee’s ‘Vision Exchange Workshop,’ initiated in Delhi and Bombay (now known as Mumbai) from

Many of the artworks reference the 1947 partition of India into India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), reframing it from a non-Western perspective, and this historical event becomes a catalyst for conversation around ongoing sociopolitical concerns. Artists address issues of shifting histories and borders; relationships to the land; as well as the complex themes of migration, immigration, and diaspora.

As Manitoba’s South-Asian population grows, Vision Exchange draws awareness to the contemporary art and history of India, recognizing colonialism and the legacies of colonial history that India and Canada share. The WAG developed a Cultural Advisory Committee representing several perspectives in the Indo-Canadian diaspora and has worked with the advisors to have summer 2019 full of community-centered programming.

Winnipeg-born Divya Mehra’s ‘inflatable attempt’ at the Taj Mahal, as featured in CBC Arts’ In the Making, was installed in Gallery 9.

The WAG strives to represent the community at large and encourages dialogue that matters to those who live here and beyond. Vision Exchange is part of a larger Gallery effort to celebrate the diversity of cultures throughout the province.