THF Dialogues #1
Beyond Display : Reframing Identity, History and Memory
Arkotong Longkumer and Bazik Thlana, moderated by Donskobar Junisha Khongwir
Friday, 19th September
2:45 PM | At Martin Luther Christian University , Shillong and on Zoom
Please join us online here.
This conversation brings together Arkotong Longkumer and Bazik Thlana to reflect on how memory, identity, and history shape artistic practices and cultural production in the Northeast.
Moving between questions of inheritance, translation, and storytelling, the discussion touches on the role of museums within the context of a burgeoning interest in museological impulses in the region, the politics of cultural artefacts in the repatriation context, and how artists position themselves within shifting contexts and histories of the Eastern Himalayas.
Arkotong and Thlana draw from their individual practices to consider the intersections of community, art, and knowledge-making, while Junisha Khongwir responds by foregrounding dissemination of knowledge, accessibility and the politics of display. Together, they invite us to think about how stories and objects travel, and how they return.
Bios:
Arkotong Longkumer: Professor Arkotong Longkumer is a Naga anthropologist, who holds a personal chair in Anthropology and Modern Asia at the University of Edinburgh. He has published extensively on the Northeast of India, focusing on the Nagas, and themes related to religion, politics, materiality and their connection to cultural practices. He is currently conducting research on museum collections in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, related to objects and human remains, and is the author of, along with Meren Imchen, a graphic novel on Naga repatriation.
Bazik Thlana: Bazik Thlana is a visual artist and an academic researcher whose work draws inspiration from the unique spaces he occupies. He defines himself as a socially conscious eccentric – owning a conscious refusal of a centrally defined axis as well as an unconventionality to his practice. His unusual approach often comments on the need to look closer and examine - to take the time to inspect and appreciate a culture and people that are often forgotten in the broader scheme of things. His work is often layered and multi-faceted: going beyond the subject but also the medium and sub-text. He enjoys challenging his audience and inciting people with his art, provoking thoughts and originating dialogue. He also makes artists’ books, zines and comics and occasionally writes poetry.
Donskobar Junisha Khongwir: Donskobar Junisha Khongwir was born and raised in Laitlyngkot, Meghalaya, in 1986. She is an educator and visual artist. Junisha graduated from AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia University, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Media at St. Anthony’s College, Shillong. In addition to teaching, she serves as curator at the Northeast India AV Archive, where she works on the preservation and dissemination of archival materials, ensuring that the region’s rich audiovisual history is accessible to scholars, artists, and local communities. She is a member of the AAMA Collective, a group of women visual artists from Northeast India. She also co-authored Stories from the Valley, a book that highlights the narratives and lived experiences of the diasporic Mizo community of Happy Valley, Shillong.