Dr Sangeeta Sandrasegar
White Picket fences in the clear light of day cast black lines, 2009
Laser cut acrylic
Each component 58.2 x 30 x 0.3cm (set of 14)
Dimensions of base 12.5 x 8 x 0.6cm
Returning to Australia after 5 years away my thoughts were heavily occupied with my understanding of race and culture within the Australian politic and space of representation. I had been following the news articles over Indian/ International Students, and the concurrent articles and commentary to attitudes of racism they were inciting. So I began to develop a project exploring Australia's notions / myths of representation: as imbued in terms like unAustralian, the labelling of Otherness within ethnic groups that are Australian born - terminology and slang that stands uncontested throughout the social spheres of the country: politically, culturally, economically. Through the work I wanted to deal or debunk this complacency of Australian narrative tropes: of being the 'fair country', the language we use to label difference and thus interrogate the pernicious forms of racism we live amidst. The work 'White picket fences in the clear light of day cast black lines', took a current issue – acts of violence occurring against Indian International students to examine Australia’s attitude to immigration and reviewing our history and contemporary cultural and political stance.
Dimensions of base 12.5 x 8 x 0.6cm
Returning to Australia after 5 years away my thoughts were heavily occupied with my understanding of race and culture within the Australian politic and space of representation. I had been following the news articles over Indian/ International Students, and the concurrent articles and commentary to attitudes of racism they were inciting. So I began to develop a project exploring Australia's notions / myths of representation: as imbued in terms like unAustralian, the labelling of Otherness within ethnic groups that are Australian born - terminology and slang that stands uncontested throughout the social spheres of the country: politically, culturally, economically. Through the work I wanted to deal or debunk this complacency of Australian narrative tropes: of being the 'fair country', the language we use to label difference and thus interrogate the pernicious forms of racism we live amidst. The work 'White picket fences in the clear light of day cast black lines', took a current issue – acts of violence occurring against Indian International students to examine Australia’s attitude to immigration and reviewing our history and contemporary cultural and political stance.
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