Artist Statement

My work is rooted in my ingrained Indian heritage, the conviviality of the brothel I grew up in and further branches out to the rooftops of the diasporic queer community that I now call home. Curious in self-portraiture and mythology, I distort and reconstruct traditional narratives of body, gender, and sexuality in an attempt to understand myself as a visual subject. The sari has become a leitmotif in my recent works: tied to the memory of the violent death of my mother burnt in fire, the saris bear the weight of her absence and erasure. Yet their literal veiling also forms a womb-like shelter, allowing for play with gender. The fabrics are both brushstrokes of colors and feminine exuberance even as they record loss.

Bio 

Avijit Halder is an Indian-born American visual artist based in New York City. Through photography, painting, installation, and video, Halder explores their past and present identity as an artist, articulating their experiences of loss, belonging, displacement, and transformation. Avijit was one of the subjects featured in the academy award-winning documentary “Born into Brothels”. Halder is a 2019 graduate of the ICP-Bard MFA program and earned their BFA in film & tv from New York University in 2012. Their work has been exhibited in both solo and group shows, most notably, Higher Pictures, GNY21 MoMA ps1, Baxter street.