Art @ 10C: Adream and adrift, the cosmic egg
10C is excited to announce the upcoming exhibition, ‘Adream and adrift, the cosmic egg’ by Waterloo based artist and 10C Member Roshan James. From September 5 to October 29, James will be showcasing a collection of paintings and site-responsive installation curated by Shalaka Jadhav in 10C’s First Floor and Fourth Floor galleries.
Drop by Monday to Friday, 9:00AM – 5:00PM to view this incredible exhibition.
Join us for the reception on Thursday October 3, 7:00PM-9:00PM at 10C!
Across many traditions, the cosmic egg is understood as a sort of primordial beginning, a metaphor for understanding potentiality. In this series of work by self-taught artist Roshan James, landscapes and mythology are layered together, surfacing a humility and sacred respect for the unknown. In a gesture of receptiveness to what unfolds, the large scale canvases hung across both galleries are worked in layers, walking the tension of shared and protected ancestral knowledges. In the Fourth Floor Gallery, James develops a site-responsive installation in the form of four altars, bringing to attention the edges of where the architecture of the old Ackers’ Furniture building stretches into the community space, delivering four portals of light. In presenting these altars, James encourages a dialogue about our connection to the spaces we inhabit and our role in shaping what is to come, as we understand our responsibilities as future ancestors.
Roshan James (she/her) is a Tibetan-Indian multidisciplinary artist, poet, and musician born in Scarborough, Ontario, living as a settler in the rural area north of Waterloo, Ontario. As part of the South Asian diaspora, Roshan’s research and experiments result in work that connects with themes of decolonization, identity, and healing. Embodied in her expression is anti-oppression advocacy and representation of marginalized, queer, and melanated voices to help dismantle colonial, capitalistic systems. Roshan is deeply involved in advocating for mental health and the arts, serving on the Board of Governors for Starling Community Services (formerly Lutherwood Canada), and volunteering with the Waterloo Region Community Foundation. In 2023, Roshan was a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, focused on vocal development. Roshan studied at Queen’s University and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and she holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from York University, summa cum laude. You’ll find her on social media, most active on Instagram at @roshan_james.
Shalaka Jadhav is a writer, researcher, and curator who spent their childhood between cities in India and in Dubai, before moving to a neighbourhood spitting distance from Ontario’s largest mall. Shalaka’s research interests on spatial positionality and critical geographies of grief, public memory, and queer ecologies can be evidenced in exhibitions they have been curated in Halifax, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Shalaka has held roles at OCAD and The Blackwood, and is the co-director of Textile, a hyper-local arts collective in Waterloo Region that supports writers and artists through mentorship, publishing, and curation. Shalaka splits their time on Haldimand Tract and Treaty 1 territory and always orders dessert.
