Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski and Chitra Ganesh in conversation
From 'Even Then There are Stars' exhibition catalog, Cue Art Foundation, 2021.
Amaryllis DeJesus Moleski and Chitra Ganesh sat down to have this conversation together via Zoom on November 8th, 2020. This exchange, originally planned for March, had been postponed along with the exhibition due to COVID-19 shutdowns across the United States. They recorded this conversation in the midst of the US election week, and held space for the following curiosities.
ADM: Your work has been a big influence for me as an artist and maker. I listened to a recent interview of yours and appreciated your naming of the multiple pandemics we are experiencing: COVID-19, racial violence, and one of authoritarianism and censorship. I would add the ongoing climate crisis as well. This week, we are also dealing with an intense presidential election. This exhibition is looking at future narratives and both of us as artists turn toward futurity as well. What does it mean to you, to deal with the future in this moment when our present is so urgently calling for our attention? Is this feeling familiar to you? Have you been here before?
CG: The value of thinking towards the future even as the present urgently calls for our attention is that all of these temporalities are deeply layered and intertwined. Even the political conflagration and urgency that surrounds the multiple pandemics we are living through is a direct result of a refusal to acknowledge the multiple axes of violence that underpin American history and settler colonialism. So moving toward the future is just as much about looking at the past with our eyes open and being able to put it in its proper place. And as we proceed and evolve in this moment, the legacies and lineages of what is making our future possiblebalso stand out in greater relief to me. An anchor to thisbprocess is considering multiple temporalities in the same frame, showing us where history repeats itself, is written towards power, and becomes entangled with misinformation, xenophobia, or colonialism.