ThisOnly
For immediate release:
Rawson Projects is pleased to announce ThisOnly, a new online exhibition launching in December created by ThisOnly, an art collective developed out of the teachings of Dr. Roger Neesh, as expressed through *Pardon My Hindi.
ThisOnly's practice involves applying artistic techniques to the results of archival research to catalog and narrate the layered histories through the media of mundane, everyday objects. The online exhibition, which showcases new work, will feature wearables and zines that explore the aesthetics and socio-political context behind the legendary rapper KRS-One’s experience in New York in the early 1980s and the first Communist government (elected in 1957) in Kerala, India.
An artist statement from ThisOnly follows:
“The first volume starts with examining the early history of KRS-One, and his life in homeless shelters in New York in the early '80s. It was there that he came across the Hare Krishnas, who were feeding the homeless and sharing their literature. They teased him with the nickname, Krishna, to such an extent that his paperwork was accidentally changed from his birth name of Lawrence to Krishna. From there our conversation moved into the visual languages employed by their two worlds including their intersection. We also examined the general social-political context that generated the homelessness crisis and the shredding of the social safety net that precipitated the meeting between KRS and the Krishnas, namely Reagan. These legacies are also found in the present day in the rise of the right-wing politics of Donald Trump in the US and Narender Modi in India.
The next exploration is around the Communist government elected in the southern Indian state of Kerala in 1957. We examined the specifics of that government and its policies along with the reaction (both for and against) internationally and domestically. We weaved one of the unique aspects of the history of Kerala, its nearly 2000 year interaction with Christianity, into our exploration of Communism in Kerala. Shortly after 1957, there appeared a synthesis between Marx and Christ, Liberation Theology. We were fascinated by how this conversation between Marx and Christ in Kerala is shown in Kerala’s day to day material culture."
*The word “Only” is used in South Asian English to emphasize a statement (e.g. I want this only.)
For more information contact the gallery at info@rawsonprojects.com.