previous image | Contemporary Art and Identity | next image
Nikolas Groot
Half Caste/Full Caste, 2000
(part 3 of 3)Photograph on panel and silk screen
The ideas behind the triptych, Half-Caste/Full-Caste began
to evolve several years ago as part of an ongoing research into the
histories of colonized peoples and the politics of ethnicity. The artwork
addresses the issues of a caste ideology imposed on communities of mixed
race in the Indian subcontinent and beyond. The title "Half-caste/Full-caste",
is taken from the word half-caste, a derogatory term that evolved during
the British Raj in India as a label for individuals of Eurasian decent
(Anglo-Indians as they were eventually called).
In creating this work, I tried to examine what significance ethnicity
and caste identity played in molding the lives of children, in both
past and present generations. How had the birth of negative caste ideologies
bonded as well as separated communal associations? I examined my childhood,
in juxtaposition with the lives of children from the Calcutta slum of
Tiljallah, and the resulting cultural void that lies between.
Silk-screened writings and brief journal excerpts, in
Bengali translation, form a sub-narrative in this series. The words
are the autobiographical reflections of an Anglo-Indian boy, and although
naturally ambiguous, they serve to contextualize the work culturally,
while maintaining their own
semiotic meaning. The viewer is likewise invited to reflect on his/her
own evolution and historical identity.
|
Nikolas Groot, artist and photographer, was born and raised in Toronto, Canada to a European father and South-Asian mother. His work over the past few years has predominantly addressed universal notions of ethnicity and their impact on one's own sense of placement and origin. He draws on personal experiences as an individual of mixed origins, in both his artistic and social work. Groot is a graduate of the Dawson Institute of Photography in Montréal, Québec and the Ontario College of Art and Design. He has exhibited in Canada and Europe and his work can be viewed as a feature artist on the web (www.photography.ca). |
previous image | Contemporary Art and Identity | next image