Hiraeth

Artist Mithu Sen addresses themes of looting and repatriation related to museums in this lecture-performance.

Free. Open to all.

Doors open to Metcalf Auditorium, Chace Center lobby, 20 North Main Street, at 3:00 pm.

Co-presented by RISD Painting and Literary Arts and Studies departments, along with Brown University, the University of Rhode Island, Providence College, and the RISD Museum.

Sponsored with support from the Vikram and Geetanjali Kirloskar Visiting Scholar in Painting and the Robert Turner Theatrical and Performance Design Fund.

Mithu Sen is a conceptual artist who explores myths of identity, and their intersection with the structures of our world, whether social, political, economic, or emotional. Sen performs her work across mediums to explore hierarchies and conventions with particular reference to ‘myths’ of language, sexuality, market, and marginalization. Braiding grotesque fiction, personal ephemera, and piercing humor to obscure societal codes, the by-products of her conceptual practice take the forms of drawings, poems, performances, videos, glitches, and instructional interventions.

Sen received her BFA (1995) and MFA (1997) from Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, India; and a PG diploma (2001) from the Glasgow School of Art, UK.

Sen has exhibited and performed in major international forums including Sharjah Biennale 15, UAE (2023); Sonsbeek 20-24, Arnhem, the Netherlands (2021); APT9-9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2018); Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg (2018); Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai (2018); Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2017); Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016), among other forums and institutions. She recently had her major survey show of the last two decades at ACCA, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne in 2023.