Dipna Horra
Avaaz
13 August to 24 October 2010
Curated by Andrea Fatona

Dipna Horra, ears, v.2, 2009, binaural microphone, wood, copper, silicone, electronics

Dipna Horra, ears, v.2, 2009, binaural microphone, wood, copper, silicone, electronics/p>

Avaaz is the Punjabi word for voice. Dipna Horra's sound installation Avaaz is an autobiographical story that revolves around the artist's great-grandfather's journey from the Punjab to Kenya and his subsequent founding of the newspaper called The Colonial Times. Horra enlivens everyday domestic objects with sounds and voices appropriated from her childhood and adult life. A teapot, cups, a table, a radiator, and a window frame narrate a story of movement, migration and transculturation.

The human propensity toward narrative and narration is transcultural and transhistorical. Hayden White, in his discussion of the value of narrative, states, "Far from being a problem, then, narrative might well be considered a solution to a problem of general human concern, namely, the problem of how to translate knowing into telling."¹ Narration externalizes partial knowledges and inscribes agency.

Sound and narrative are employed within Horra's work to transport the viewer between different historical moments and places–the Punjab, Kenya, Ottawa. The voices in the piece are those of the artist and her father. We hear her father recounting the story of the family's immigration from India to Canada. We also hear recordings of the artist as a child singing songs in English and French. As devices, both sound and, in particular, narrative serve to inscribe structures of meaning on to experiences and events.

Horra tells of colonial and post-colonial realities from the space of domesticity. The kitchen table is the location of the production and reproduction of cultures and identities–Indian, British, Canadian–while the teapot and cups serve as cultural signifiers. The sounds, stories, songs and languages of these three geographies are simultaneously translated and mapped onto the present time and space, creating a new form of hybrid identity that finds a sense of belonging across national boundaries, language, and time.

– Andrea Fatona, Curator of Contemporary Art

¹ Hayden White, "The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality", Critical Inquiry, vol. 7, no. 1 (1980): 5–27.

Events

Opening | Thursday 12 August at 5:30 pm

Meet the Artist School Program | October 2010
School groups from grades 9 to 12 are invited to the Gallery for a personal visit and activity with artist Dipna Horra. The workshops will begin with a tour of the exhibition Avaaz, followed by a demonstration of the sound and electronic components used by the artist in her work, and conclude with and a hands-on activity. Spaces are limited! To register a group, teachers are asked to contact Véronique Couillard, Manager, Public and Educational Programs at the Ottawa Art Gallery: 613-233-8699, ext. 228 or vcouillard@ottawaartgallery.ca.
Presented in collaboration with Artengine.