WORKS: Reshma Chhiba – Writing

Texts by Reshma Chhiba

Chhiba, R. (2017) The two talking yonis : the use of Hindu iconography in conversations of race, identity, politics and womanhood within contemporary South African art. Nidan : International Journal for Indian Studies, Volume 2 Number 2, pp. 44 – 60
This article looks at the use of Hindu iconography within South African visual art practice and its relation to race, identity, politics and womanhood in the work of Reshma Chhiba. It draws primarily on work from the 2013 exhibition entitled The Two Talking Yonis: Reshma Chhiba in conversation with Nontobeko Ntombela, and discusses Chhiba’s use of the image of the goddess Kali, the concept of yoni, the use of Bharatanatyam and understandings of feminine energy in relation to womanhood. It also threads a narrative of Chhiba’s ancestry through a poetic description of her grandmother’s journey from India to South Africa, and the embodiment of Kali as a form of defiance not only in her work, but also in her grandmother.
https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-c195dbc56

Chhiba, R.D. (2015) Shifting Spaces, Publics and Audiences. In: Murinik, T.  (ed.) Constructure: 100 years of the JAG building and its evolution of space and meaning. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, pp. 158-159. Available on issuu.

Chhiba, R.D. (2013) Images of Kali as Reflections of Female Defiance within Selected Examples of Contemporary Asian Arts, Unpublished dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters in Fine Arts, Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand.
[download pdf here]

Chhiba, R.D. (2013). The Two Talking Yonis: In Conversation with Nontobeko Ntombela. Exhibition catalogue, Kalashnikov Gallery, Johannesburg.
[download pdf here]

Chhiba, R.D. (2012). Kali: The Defiant Female. In: Rankin-Smith, F. (ed.) Figuring Faith; Images of Belief in Africa. Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books.

Chhiba, R.D. (2010). Reshma Chhiba: 2003-2010. Exhibition catalogue.
[download pdf here]