Valade Speaker Series: In the Realm of Lighting - Rajni Perera & Nep Sidhu

The works of Rajni Perera and Nep Sidhu are often considered to be different facets of the same story unfurling in the same direction. Both coming from labour backgrounds and working class migrant families, Sidhu’s work anchors in the search and service of spirit and community, while Perera’s floats in the portals and parallels of mythmaking and scientific discovery. There are many crossovers as the artists seek the world behind the veil of the Real and the Self, leading them to collaborate often. ‘In The Realm of Lightning’ exhibited in Toronto in the summer of 2021 and would mark their first collaborative exhibition featuring new works. Besides the teachings of Sun Ra’s philosophical and poetic arc, the works were guided by offerings of Sikhi and Buddhism, the ancestral cosmic well, and the housing of the unseen within artisanal vessel and material form. In this exchange at the Valade Speaker series, the artists unpack this time of makership as well as the conception and creation of distinctive works made throughout their careers separately as well as together.

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Host or Publisher College for Creative Studies