Artists at Home: Monica Jahan Bose

Monica Jahan Bose is a Bangladeshi-American artist and climate activist who has exhibited her work extensively in the US and internationally, including eighteen solo shows and numerous group exhibitions. Through over twenty performances and dozens of art actions, Bose has engaged thousands of people. Her ongoing feminist collaborative project, Storytelling with Saris, has traveled to ten states and several countries and been featured in numerous publications and TV and radio programs. Her work has appeared in the Miami Herald, the Washington Post, the Brooklyn Paper, Art Asia Pacific, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Honolulu Star Advertiser, the Japan Times, and all major newspapers in Bangladesh. In 2019, she created a large-scale public art project called WRAPture in Washington, DC. She has a BA in the Practice of Art (Painting) from Wesleyan University, a post-graduate Diploma in Art from Santiniketan, India, and a JD from Columbia Law School.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON CURRENTLY?

I am working on moving a number of my projects online, and canceling and postponing others. My public art project WARMING WATERS is now being managed through Zoom and Livestream. We also have ASL interpretation for that project so I’m trying to coordinate the best way to do that online. I am also working on a book of climate poems and photographs, which is due to come out this summer. These poems grew out of my climate sari art workshops last year in Washington DC. I noticed many people were rapping or chanting as they worked on the saris. I encouraged them to write poems and plan to publish them in a little book along with photos.

I am also working on several films: (1) a feature length film “WRAPture: A Public Art Project” (2) two short performance-based films and (3) a long-term film project on Storytelling with Saris and climate change.

Monica Jahan Bose, *WRAPture*, 2019, temporary public art installation, Washington DC

DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS WHEN BEGINNING A NEW PROJECT

I like to respond to a particular place and community and think about the issues that are there and how an art intervention might help illuminate or resolve those issues. I start by talking to people in the community, the curators and other arts organizations I am working with, and doing extensive research. Usually I blend my own ideas with feedback to come up with a concept and try to find people who will be good collaborators to help build a team around the project.

ARE THERE ANY MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT YOUR WORK THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY?

Sometimes people assume that my work speaks only to South Asia because I use the sari in my work. Although the sari comes from my own culture and identity, I also use it as a more universal reference to women’s bodies and the cycle of life on our planet. It is unstitched handwoven fabric that can be shaped in different ways, serving as a canvas and storyboard for diverse stories.

WHAT IS THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME?

I think our greatest challenge is climate justice, reducing our consumption and energy use to cool down our planet so that we can continue to exist, while providing a sustainable and just life for all of us.

Monica Jahan Bose, *Seven Minutes on the B67*, 2019, performance at Open Source Gallery

HAS COVID-19 IMPACTED YOUR PRACTICE?

Covid-19 has completely upended and changed my practice since my work is about public engagement. It has resulted in canceling/postponing a number of exhibitions, commissioned performances, and speaking engagements this spring. My massive public installation WARMING WATERS for the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day is now a livestream event from my studio, and my public workshops are now on Zoom. I am not able to meet with people and make art with them in the same way. I probably will not be able to have an exhibition this fall in DC, for which I was bringing a musician from Paris to collaborate on a performance.

I am now spending most of my time online trying to reformat my work and make sure my colleagues, friends, and family are surviving. My studio has been transformed into a fabric mask-making station. I started making non-medical washable masks on March 21 with recycled sheets, garments, and saris. I wore them in public and shared on social media and gave them to folks. Later I enlisted help from my teen daughter, who has taken over the sewing. Together we have made over 130 masks, which I have been providing to seniors, artists, and others in DC and beyond (free for lower income folks, small donations taken from others). I have sent masks to my community collaborators and assistants by mail. I am dropping off a large batch this week for homeless women at an organization where I’ve been doing climate art workshops.

I need to devote a substantial part of my time to helping people during this pandemic. I hope that my virtual workshops and the physical masks from my studio can help people feel a little more connected and protected.

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