Preetika Rajgariah Servicing Self

Preetika Rajgariah, building upon her critically lauded solo at B.A.E. Houston, presents "Servicing Self": a series of recent and liberatory self portraits in a historic storefront of Kinderhook, NY. Each is fashioned on reclaimed yoga mats, evoking the appropriation of Indian culture by being presented on an "Indian" artifact that was in fact invented and popularized in the west. Paint, sari fabrics, both inherited and new, and the rubberized skin of the yoga mat, mingle in an intoxicating melange of glorious colors depicting surreal environments, and nostalgic iconography as the repeated bodies move through subject and object. The exhibition celebrates and centers selfhood and self care, which is inherently contrary to societal expectations and roles of women in many immigrant cultures.