Artist Statement:

I continue to breathe in a ‘post-colonial’ world - in the shadow of the multiple empires that came, went and exist. My material work manifests in sculpture and drawings under honest word plays such as, margin and marginalized, habit and habitat, eye and I, rule and ruled. Through my practice, I investigate calcified habits and the parasitic roots of power that exist in interactions with oneself, each other and the landscape that we occupy. I look intently on systems of standardization that are employed to exert control over time and space while simultaneously exposing the embodiment of these systems through the dissemination of information in early learning spaces. For instance, I was conditioned to think within the divided space of notebooks in 0.7 centimeter increments, and similarly I learned to function within fixed parameters set to continue the propagation of colonial thought. By actively bringing into my conscious memory the visual markers of power, I seek to unmake sets of micro-habit. 

About Kushala Vora

Kushala Vora is a dreamer, community organizer and an interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture and drawing. In and through her practice she focuses on loosening the exertion of power on oneself, another and the landscape that we reside with. She does this by exploring materiality, dissemination of information in educational spaces, and the cultivation of habit.

Kushala is currently a Jackman Goldwasser Resident at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. She has been a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Drawing, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Chicago Artist Coalition, Søndre Green Farm Norway and ACRE Residency. Her work has been exhibited at Museum of Fine Arts, Nagoya, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit; Mana Contemporary, Chicago; Harvard University, Cambridge; Chicago Artist Coalition, National Indo-American Museum among other places. 

Kushala received a MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She hold a post-graduate diploma in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art History and Curatorial Studies from Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, India and a BFA from Tufts University/ SMFA, Boston. She is the co-founder of Atmo - a reading + praxis forum.

Curriculum Vitae (Download)

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Please leave me a message if you are interested in my work, would like to collaborate or visit my studio.

Email: kushala.vora@gmail.com

Instagram: @kushalavora