Crossing Black Waters A Conversation Between Shaheen Merali, Bhajan Hunjan and Said Adrus

In this conversation, part of Panchayat-Horizon, Shaheen Merali joins artists Bhajan Hunjan and Said Adrus to discuss the Crossing Black Waters exhibition and its significance against the backdrop of 1980s Britain and an emerging discourse about diaspora, as well as the development of their own practices as artists, activists and cultural workers. Download an edited transcript and watch a screen recording of the original conversation from 24 August 2021 below.

Said Adrus artist page from Crossing Black Waters catalogue

Crossing Black Waters was a touring exhibition curated by Shaheen Merali and Al-An deSouza that addressed the Partition of the Indian Subcontinent in 1947, its colonial legacy and its afterlives.1 Opening at City Gallery, Leicester in 1992 Crossing Black Waters toured to Oldham Art Gallery, Cartwright Hall and the South London Gallery. The exhibition facilitated dialogue and collaboration between South Asian artists at a time when the highly political and militarised borders of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh made such collective endeavours immensely difficult, if not impossible.

Thirteen artists participated, six based in the Subcontinent and seven in Britain, including the speakers in this conversation. Their work addressed displacement, exile, religious and communal divides, and intergenerational trauma caused by Partition. Focusing on the contributions of four of the thirteen featured artists – Arpana Caur, Nina Edge, Samena Rana and Anwar Saeed – Shaheen Merali, Bhajan Hunjan and Said Adrus discuss how Britain as the metropole became a meeting point for South Asian artists, as well as the role played by networks of mutual support, collaboration and dialogue in sustaining and inspiring their work.

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