About the Exhibition
जत्रा (JA-TRA): A Feeling at the Beginning of Time was a solo exhibition by Minneapolis-based and Goa-raised artist Roshan Ganu. ‘जत्रा’ (pronounced ja-tra) is a Marathi word for a town/village fair. A place where people and vendors come from near and far to be enchanted by an old, familiar charm: puppet shows, Death Valley, cotton candy, shimmery fabric blouses, fake gold jewelry, plastic toys, steel utensils, the smell of roasted peanuts and popcorn, on a wide expanse of land. Above all the Giant Wheel, the star attraction seen looming even from a distance, and guides those who are lost. Being lost. I am lost. Are you lost? She is lost. They are lost. We are all lost. It is the beginning of time.
In the Davies Gallery at the Rochester Art Center, Ganu created a multimedia installation of the liminal space that is a ‘जत्रा’ (jatra) at night. Visitors were invited to be lost, slow down, explore and contemplate to find their own place within Ganu’s poetic narrative.
About the artist:
Roshan Ganu is a multimedia artist originally from Goa, presently based in Minneapolis. Her practice uses iterations of light, darkness, moving image, space and time to explore the poignant states of our human condition. She is interested in the interflow of meaning between the linguistic, visual, experiential and transdisciplinary. Her work brings a narrative, a moment or an emotion to life wherein she employs the tools of linguistics, space, time, moving image and narrative to meet her audience in a space of vulnerability. ‘Isolation’ is the predominant framework through which she perceives the human condition, the overriding subtext in her work.
Ganu is a 2022-2023 MCAD-Jerome Foundation Fellow. She has been a recipient of the 2021-22 Next Step Fund Award by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the MNiatures grant by Minnesota Opera in 2021. She concluded her Fall 2022 artist residency at Soo Visual Arts Center with a culminating solo exhibition, and was the 2021-22 artist-in-residence at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul. She is currently a Foundation Studies Professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is also the co-founder and lead artist of Aapli Zine Library in Northeast Minneapolis, a public interest project supported by MRAC’s Arts Impact For Groups and Springboard For The Arts.
Documentation by Kali Morrison