About
Meena is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist living on Tongva-Kizh land, colonially known as Los Angeles. Meena creates art installations at the intersection of video art, textile art, live performance, and social issues. Their work grapples with multimedia collage, experimental documentary, textile art, improvisation, somatic bodywork, collective creation, brahminized bharatanatyam, and the folk traditions of Shudra communities, including their own. Meena centers an anti-racist, anti-caste, feminist, queer, land back, liberatory creative practice. They research interlocking systems of apartheid—across caste, race, gender, religion, ethnicity, and species—to interrogate hierarchical structures of power and create ethical ways of being together. This inquiry informs their current project, Dravidian Futures, a speculative multimedia installation examining Dravidian-African connections, casteism, colorism, trance rituals, and the ancient submerged landmass of Kumari Kandam / Lemuria. Meena’s solo work has been supported through grants and artist residencies, including The Mellon Foundation, CHIME, Pieter, UCLA, Canada Council for the Arts, CALQ and SODEC. Their video art has been presented at The Getty Museum, Broad Museum, MOCA LA, BlackStar Film Festival, 651 Arts, Jacob’s Pillow, SOPHIENSÆLE, Underground Museum, REDCAT, ODC, Abrons Arts Center, NYLA, EMPAC, ICA Philadelphia, MCA Chicago, Danspace, Wesleyan University, UCLA, Tangente, and MAI, among others. They have collaborated with d. Sabela grimes, taisha paggett, CONTRATIEMPO, D’Lo, Chris Emile, Sita Fredick, Jaamil Olawale-Kosoko, Lionel Popkin, Marjani & Everett Saunders, David Rousseve, Sune Woods, Embodiment Project, and others. www.vimeo.com/