Traveller
Rajni Perera
Monolith
English
Essay by Negarra A. Kudumu
Softcover
First Edition, limited to 500 copies
24 pages
300 x 400 mm
2020
ISBN Not available
Taking place in a future that could be now or may have already happened, Traveller speaks directly to issues of sovereignty, belonging, identity and personhood. As times of scarcity loom large, and as nation states push and pull on its citizenry, we see the diasporic person become the focus of the future. The Travellers are protected by way of ancestral armour developed for body and spirit and adapted to fit behaviours of care and nourishment, while facing the dangers of off-world commute, inhospitable terrain, and territorial dispute. These vestments have been produced slowly, in some cases over the course of many centuries. The diasporic Traveller has mutated into an optimal evolutionary state, like the flowers of Fukushima, emerging beautifully while dying in some ways and being reborn in others. Their mythologies join hands and worlds through bloodlines, through warp and weft, all the way through to the place where the formerly displaced are presently powerful, safe, protected and flourishing. It is an ancient and boundless state to which they have returned, many millennia ahead of and behind us.
(source: http://www.rajniperera.com/traveller)
About the Artist
Rajni Perera (b. 1985, Sri Lanka) lives and works in Toronto. She explores issues of hybridity, futurity, ancestorship, immigration identity/cultures, monsters and dream worlds. All of these themes marry in a newly objectified realm of mythical symbioses. In her work, she seeks to open and reveal the dynamism of the icons and objects she creates, both scripturally existent, self-invented and externally defined. She creates a subversive aesthetic that counteracts antiquated, oppressive discourse, and acts as a restorative force through which people can move outdated, repressive modes of being towards reclaiming their power.
rajniperera.com
(source: http://www.rajniperera.com/about-1)
About the Publisher
Monolith was founded by Kris Graves and is a Black-owned publishing house dedicated to showcasing work from artists of colour across mediums that address issues of race, identity, equity, gender, sexuality, and class.
monolitheditions.com
(source: https://www.monolitheditions.com/about)
