Ravi Prasad Opening Event . Wednesday 27 March, 6 – 8pm Runs . 28 March – 7 April, 2024 Ravi’s great grandparents were Girmityas, Indians coerced into indentured labour by the British, to work on sugar cane plantations in Fiji. Essentially an impoverished colonised people, bought by a colonising power, to another people’s colonised land. And then it gets complicated. Toward the end of the White Australia Policy, Ravi’s father emigrated to yet another colonised land, Australia – as Ravi would joke, ‘essentially doubling the number of Indian gentlemen in Adelaide from one, to two’. So, from the very beginning, questions of identity and belonging have been the centre of gravity for Ravi’s work. Both knowingly and unknowingly informing it. Over the last 10 years drawing has been the focus of Ravi’s practice. And the drawing themselves, to a greater or lesser extent, are informed by an exploration of intersectional identity; as he put is, he is essentially ‘trying to see himself’. The work is also deeply engaged with identity in art and culture and how artworks and images have, and continue, to shape our identities, perceptions and beliefs. In one sense it’s an exploration of the social and cultural representation that have defined contemporary marginalised identity. In another sense, the point of the work is simply how the process of producing the work, ameliorates the anxiety and tension that drives Ravi to produce it. Ravi Prasad has been a practicing visual artist for over three decades and has show in spaces including Gallery Wren, Gaffa, AirSpace, Space Space, The Tynte Gallery, The Harrington Gallery, The Dearman Gallery, Artists Triennial, ArtSpace, The Gunnery, Contemporary Art Society (SA) and Luna. Recent exhibitions include Hooray for Hollywood (September 2023), the Biennale of Sydney 2022 ‘Rivus’ creating an installation and workshop for The Water School, at the Cutaway in Sydney, in collaboration with artist Tessa Zettel. Ravi has been a Finalist Hornsby Art Prize 2023, with work included in over 40 private and corporate collections. Ravi Prasad is perhaps best known for his work in human rights. Over the last years this recognition has included a Humanitarian Award, a Human Rights Award and most recently the 2022 NSW Human Rights Medal, again, maybe not relevant. He is also the founder of Parliament on King. Ravi Prasad acknowledges the traditional owners and custodian upon which he works, the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and their elders past present and emerging.