Join us for a guest talk by art historian Melia Belli Bose, who contributed the catalog essay for The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness. She’ll explore how the artists connect feminism, identity, and cultural histories across the South Asian diaspora.
The Paglees is a feminist collective of artists of South Asian origin living across the United States. Paglee or pagli means crazy woman in a number of South Asian languages. The Paglees are: Fawzia Khan, Indrani Nayar-Gall, Monica Jahan Bose, Nirmal Raja, Pallavi Sharma, Renluka Maharaj, and Shelly Bahl.
The Paglees investigate – with fierceness, beauty, and wit – the impact on women of generations of patriarchy, religion, white supremacy, colonialism, violence, capitalism, and environmental plunder.
The title of the exhibition derives from Rosa Parks’ words: “There is just so much hurt, disappointment and oppression one can take. The bubble of life grows larger. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” (Rosa Parks: Writings, Notes and Statements,1956-58).
Featuring mixed-media works on paper, fabric, and canvas, sculpture, performance, photography, installation, and moving image, The Paglees: Between Reason and Madness, questions and reframes the labeling of non-conforming women as crazy and the marginalization of immigrant women of color. This collective exhibition presents new decolonial narratives that center the reason and wisdom of brown women of the Global South and diaspora, and provide pathways to a creative feminist future. The Paglees believe in working in collaboration with other marginalized communities to build bridges and demand social, environmental, and legal justice for all.
The exhibition was previously exhibited at the South Asia Institute in Chicago, IL.
The Nonconformists: A Review of “The Paglees—Between Reason and Madness” at South Asia Institute
About the Speaker:
Melia Belli Bose is Associate Professor of South Asian Art History at the University of Victoria, Canada. Her research engages with visual cultures of early modern and contemporary north India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Her publications include Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics, and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art (Brill, 2015); the edited volumes Women, Gender, and Art in Asia ca. 1500-1900 (Routledge, 2016), Intersections: Visual Cultures of Islamic Cosmopolitanism (University of Florida Press, 2021); Threads of Globalization: Fashion, Textiles, and Gender in Asia in the Long Twentieth Century (Manchester University Press, 2024); guest edited journal editions; and numerous articles and book chapters.
Dr. Belli Bose’s current book project, Creative Interventions: Art and Cultural Activism in Bangladesh examines artworks that critique, help heal and create community in a changing Bangladesh. She is also conducting research on contemporary Dalit art, exploring young Dalit artists’ engagement with Buddhism, politics, globalization, and social identity.
Featured Artists:
Shelly Bahl, NYC.
Monica Jahan Bose, Washington, DC.
Fawzia Khan, Hopkins, MN.
Renluka Maharaj, Boulder, CO.
Indrani Nayar-Gall, Charlotte, NC.
Nirmal Raja, Milwaukee, WI.
Pallavi Sharma, San Ramon, CA.
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