October 2025 / Of the Land

In the Back Space /

Of the Land

Arpita Akhanda
B. Ajay Sharma
Janina Totzauer
Madhu Das
Ravi Agarwal
Sophia Layla
Shuyi Gao
Sobia Zaidi

October 2 - November 2, 2025

Opening Reception, Thursday, October 2, 5-8pm

Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 12–5pm

Through installation, film, performance, and text, Of the Land brings together artists from various geographies to explore identity, ecology and place. Moving beyond ownership claims and extractive histories towards relations of kinship, memory, care –  the exhibition poses the question of how we might reclaim our relationships with the land.

The fact that many artists were unable to attend in person influenced the exhibition as it developed.  The act of absence itself was incorporated into the piece, reflecting broader circumstances of exile, migration, and borders.  

As a result, the exhibition explores land as territory—contested, colonized, crossed, and redrawn—in addition to land as material or metaphor.  Of the Land examines how maps are more than just lines on paper; they are lived geographies inscribed on bodies in the world of today, which is marked by shifting states, occupied territories, and hardened borders.

Featuring a diverse range of artistic practices such as painting, film, live performance, and installation, the exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how their connections to land influence their lives, from childhood memories to acts of reclamation and decolonization. It fosters dialogue about land as a source of grounding and resistance, encouraging collective healing and connection.

The participating artists draw from their experiences of displacement and belonging, rootedness and uprootedness. Through narratives of migration, ancestral memory, ecological ritual, and defiance of patriarchal and colonial encroachments, their works exemplify the poetics and politics of crossing land.

Of the Land is a conversation. Every piece stands alone but speaks to others, crafting a collective cartography of fragmented stories that weave a tapestry of histories.