The New Commons [part 3] :
PRERNA and PRIYANKA RAM
ABOUT THE EPISODE
For the 3rd BROADCAST episode of The New Commons, we presented an artist talk featuring Minnesota-based artist, Prerna, followed by a conversation with Priyanka Ram, artist, and musician, based in Los Angeles, CA.
Recorded on March 2nd, Prerna discussed her most recent work, which engaged with familial archives and governmental documents to discern the overlapping elements of bureaucracy and superstition—arguing that they were two sides of the same coin. She delved into her relationship with being the subject and being subjected, utilizing materials and language found in government buildings, airports, classrooms, and other spaces where the body undergoes categorization and evaluation. Through explorations of official and unofficial narratives, her work blurred the lines between the domestic and the institutional, the intimate and the formal, and the hand and the machine.
Both artists come from Tamil and Hindu heritage, at different stages of their immigration to the US: Prerna came as an adult to pursue higher education while Priyanka immigrated with her family. While Prerna’s practice addressed the sensibilities of confronting a new culture through bureaucratic language and what remained of the culture that was left behind, Priyanka was informed by the spiritual practices of her heritage filtered through the layers of this foreign place which had become home.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Prerna is a multidisciplinary artist born in Mumbai, India and currently based in St Paul, Minnesota. Most recently, Prerna received the 2023/24 MCAD x Jerome Emerging Artists Fellowship. She received her MFA from University of Minnesota and has been awarded global opportunities and residencies, including the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Artists for Artists Edition 4: Language Is Never on the Ground. Prerna has worked collaboratively with the Walker Art Center, SooVAC, LUMP Gallery, SNAG Gallery, and Papa Projects. Her work has been published in The Other Way Around, a catalog of artists at University of Minnesota and Weißensee Academy of Art in Berlin, and the visual art magazine FAKE. Prerna is the Exhibition Services Manager at Minnesota Museum of American Art.
Priyanka Ram is an artist based in Los Angeles, CA. She is a piano player through her non-profit Slowski’s Piano and alongside that is almost done with a 10 year philosophy writing project that wanders around the subjects of spirituality and technology. She has played and exhibited at various galleries, institutions, bars, and performance venues such Human Resources, VDL Neutra House, Coaxial, Beta Level, The Smell, UC Davis, LAMOA, Leroy's Happy Place, Ham & Eggs Tavern, etc. Part of the goal of Slowski’s piano is to play as many acoustic pianos as possible and part of her happiness is finding stray pianos to play. Priyanka received her undergraduate degrees in anthropology and advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and her MFA in studio art from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The New Commons is a series of online screenings, virtual live collaborations and discussions around the imaginaries of the homeland as they are shaped by digital communication technologies, such as instant messaging apps, video calls, social media and the constant exchanges of videos and images whether personal or throughout the internet. In pairing works from diasporic artists and those from their homeland, the series seeks to portray the active and collective imagination around the construction of place and sense of belonging while revealing deeply embedded social and political disparities across the world. Historically, the term 'commons' is used to refer to natural resources, belonging equally to a community, a nation, a culture.
The 'new commons' designates the common digital space of the internet that has become the new foundation of our global transnational and transgenerational culture. This series is created and presented by our 2023/2024 Curatorial Fellow, Prima Jalichandra-Sakuntabhai.