The parallax view: the art of envisioning the South Asian American diaspora

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper studies six South Asian American artists whose creative projects reveal the diasporic experience as a persistent negotiation of living in multiple historical and geographical locations. To fully understand the proposals made by their work I introduce the parallax view that enables us to see from two or more vantage points at once. This framework is well suited for art that seeks to expose the private traumas and contradictions that affect and order the lives of South Asian Americans. The artwork examined here also shows that living in the diaspora is not defined by a linear process of assimilation, but is often undercut, fragmented, and mediated by multiple spatial and subject positions. Out of the conditions of diaspora, these artists deploy critical strategies to survive in a society that refuses to give South Asian Americans visibility, political agency, and space to effectively participate in the public sphere.