This week we welcome Anurima Kumar, an interdisciplinary artist based in Queens. Her practice is centered on participation and community engagement, rather than solo studio art. She has facilitated dozens of workshops with underprivileged youth, queer people, formerly and currently incarcerated people, and people who are houseless, as well as organizations dedicated to racial and environmental justice. She works with natural dyeing and ”anti-colonial” color theory to make murals and posters.
She is also an emerging DJ under the name ‘ur kanmani,’ and has explored combining music, dance, and poetry. Kumar’s art is rooted in her work as a community organizer and public health worker. She’s interested in strengthening the connections between art, community and organizing.
“My art practice serves as a decolonial exploration and a continuous research project aimed at deconstructing borders. Art is a way of unlearning and challenging constructs while recognizing positionality and place. I embody a practice that is anti-caste, abolitionist, and health-focused, inspiring collective healing that transcend nationalism and geography,” she writes.
”One of the central goals of my art is fostering wellbeing and collective healing through partnership. I wrote my master’s thesis on creativity as a tool for resilience in adolescents, recognizing that love, creativity, and creating spaces are central to building this resilience. Through natural dyeing, I’ve worked with local farmers to receive flowers and learned about their properties on the body and mind. I’ve done this through many different mediums such as leading workshops on political poster making for Gaza, anti-colonial color theory, and remembrance of Marcellus Khaalifah Williams through his poetry.
Researching as a practice came from pursuing public health to understand what root factors linking outcomes to well being. This practice helps me navigate issues that we in communities face, and how to address them. In 2019, I directed an interdisciplinary show to use storytelling as a way to address an issue of sexual assault in my community. I used music, dance, and poetry, to demonstrate letters that were given to me by a friend written to their loved ones and also their abuser. I was able to secure two grants that allowed us to perform this in a black box theatre, and art museum, with activations for attendees to have action plans moving forward. Many people left notes and signed up to volunteer at a local shelter, as well as utilized resources we provided to help friends and family. I didn’t expect this show to have such an impact, but I realized that art in collaboration was a powerful tool to not only raise awareness, but involve community and propel change.”
See more of Anurima’s work on her website and Instagram.
Check out more of our Artist of the Week features here.
