Divya Mehra – 2014 Brooklyn Visual Arts Residency

Divya Mehra is the first recipient of the Manitoba Arts Council’s Brooklyn Visual Arts Residency at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, New York.

Divya Mehra’s (MFA Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.) research-fueled practice often explores marginalization, otherness and the empty promise of diversity. Through appropriating, editing and reassembling a variety of literary, comedic and musical sources, she creates an acerbic dialogue on the commandeering, consumption and construction of race and identity politics. Often foregrounding the ongoing struggle with her personal diasporic identity and cultural expectations, she calls into question our unexamined beliefs.

Residency Project

In the summer of 2014, Divya Mehra undertook a three-month period of self-directed research and experimentation at the ISCP in Brooklyn. Mehra used her time at the ISCP to further her investigation into concepts of diversity, marginalization, and otherness. Using text, sculptural elements, and performance, Mehra set out to create a new body of work that conceptually highlights these concerns.