Exhibition gives South Asian artists space to share stories of joy, heartbreak and discrimination

An exhibition currently underway at the Workers Art and Heritage Centre in Hamilton (WAHC) is showcasing the strengths of people who choose to leave behind everything they know for the promise of a better future, that may or may not be there.

Titled Foreign Dreams, Simranpreet Kaur Anand and Conner Singh VanderBeek worked together to build the exhibition that "would give voice to [South Asian] migrants and workers."

"I think it's really important to showcase not just people's struggle but also their resilience and their grit," Anand told CBC Hamilton.

According to VanderBeek, part of their goal was to ask viewers to "consider [South Asian immigrants] as people."

The exhibition had its opening reception on Sept. 21 and will run until Dec. 14. The museum will also host a virtual artist talk on Nov. 21 with both artists.

Anand and VanderBeek partnered with the Naujawan Support Network, a grassroots organization that supports international students and immigrants and Laadliyan a non-profit that supports South Asian women and girls.

As part of the exhibition, the WAHC's Community Gallery is showing work by Ontario artists curated by Anand and VanderBeek.

"We wanted to give an opportunity for people who themselves were international students or migrant labourers … to tell their stories," said VanderBeek.

"Otherwise, it would be another situation where international students and migrant labourers were being talked about but not being able to speak for themselves."

Santosh Chandrasekar is one of those artists. He came to Canada as an international student in 2018 to attend University of Waterloo.

He said VanderBeek and Anand's work resonated with him and made him feel less alone.

"I understand the process that it takes to have to [immigrate]. The financial, the mental burden of having to wait and all those uncertainties," he told CBC Hamilton.

Chandrasekar was born in Chennai, India, and was raised in Muscat, Oman. 

His work at the WAHC, called The Story of an Unwelcomed Guest, features images of him holding old photographs with family and friends in those same, now empty places.