Special Program: Counter-Histories—Memory, Materiality & South Asian Art

Syona Puliady and UCLA Arts Dean Lionel Popkin discuss South Asian art, material, memory, and reimagined histories.
About this Event

Curator of Textiles of the Eastern Hemisphere Syona Puliady will join UCLA Dean of the School of the Arts and Architecture Lionel Popkin for a conversation on the themes underlying Textiles as Monument and Field Notes from Begumpura: memory, materiality, and the creation of alternative histories through contemporary art.
By focusing on the works of Suchitra Mattai, Jagdeep Raina, Swapnaa Tamhane, and Rahee Punyashloka, Puliady and Popkin will consider how artists use textiles, speculative storytelling, archival practices, and other forms of cultural expression to challenge dominant narratives and center communities whose histories have often been overlooked. Together, they will address how contemporary South Asian artists create new forms of remembrance, belonging, and possibility through material and imagined worlds.
Lionel Popkin is the dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and a professor of choreography in the UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. He previously served as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs (2021–24) and chair of the World Arts and Cultures/Dance department (2015–18). Popkin’s artistic practice engages people, objects, and media to explore hybridity, archival practices, and the complexities of representing the South Asian diaspora in North America. His performance and video artworks have been presented at leading cultural venues on four continents, and his written works have been included in scholarly journals and arts publications. He joined UCLA's faculty in 2006 and is a resident artist at the 18th Street Arts Center.
Syona Puliady is curator of textiles of the Eastern Hemisphere at the Fowler Museum. Her research focuses on histories and textiles of the Indian Ocean realm. Her work also takes her to the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where she collaborates with artists and garment laborers who weave their identities into the Tamil landscape of visual, sensory, and performing arts.
Photo by Elon Schoenholz