Dreaming of a better future

The lingering ghosts of colonialism have long haunted Nova Scotia artist Arjun Lal.

“When I’m thinking of colonial ghosts, it’s these elements of colonial legacy and oppression that maintains a presence in this contemporary world,” says Lal, 34.

He said he most commonly sees this in the fetish community, where colonialism is still often role-played through the oppressor and the oppressed.

Seeing how society’s systems and spaces are still shaped by colonial powers, Lal, whose parents both immigrated from India, questioned what it would be like to break free from these systems and their current form: What would it be like to be a flamingo?

To Be a Flamingo is Lal’s first exhibition in central Canada; it is at Platform Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts until Aug. 15.

The exhibition is an archive of photos and videos from two performances in 2024 — at a YMCA pool in Halifax and Frenchman Lake in Dartmouth — for which Lal wore bright pink latex and rubber inflatables to turn himself into a flamingo.

Lal chose to base the performance off this particular pink wading bird because of the story of a flamingo in 1969 that was picked up in a storm around the Bahamas. The flamingo whirled around in the hurricane for days until the storm passed and it wound up on a beach in Nova Scotia.

The bird was shot and killed on the beach after it landed.

“I’ve just been thinking of the story of the flamingo as a metaphor for otherness and change and how our differences are met in the systems we live in,” he says.

Lal’s performance responds to this story and tries to communicate with it through time, while speculating on a better future.

With all his work, the artist tries to envision a time where people exist outside of the systems shaped by Western ideologies.

“If I can dream of a future, maybe that’s a good step in realizing it,” he says.

Lal feels moving towards this future and freeing ourselves of the lingering effects of colonialism is much deeper than checking a box.

“Colonialism is not just militant,” Lal says. “It’s religious, it’s racist — it’s so many things.”

He hopes the exhibition evokes a sense of joy and surreality while triggering people to dream about what we could be outside the systems confining us.

Having Lal’s show at Platform is very exciting, curator Meganelizabeth Diamond says.

“I think it’s a super-important story many people can connect with.”

Diamond discovered Lal’s work through a cover he did for an issue of C Magazine in spring 2024.

It’s taken two years to bring the exhibition to Winnipeg, as the organization plans its programs years in advance.

The process involved a lot of conversations to go over the studio space and how they’d design the layout.

Diamond is pleased to have been able to amplify Lal’s voice to reach a new audience in the Prairies.

For his part, Lal says he opening reception went well; he is excited to share the work on a broader scale.

“It was great — I really feel like I made a lot of connections and met a lot of people,” he says. “There’s a great community in Winnipeg.”

tiago.resko@winnipegfreepress.com