Roshan James (she/her) is a multidisciplinary emerging artist and writer in southwestern Ontario. She looks for ways to connect the everyday with timeless themes of consciousness, mindfulness, unconditional love, hope, purpose, healing and existence. She is an advocate for amplifying melanated voices while also speaking out about important social issues such as anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism, support for the LGBTQ2S+ community, and dismantling systemic oppression. Roshan studied at Queen's University and the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto, and she holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from York University, summa cum laude. Roshan recently decided to pursue art and poetry full time. She says that the transition has left her feeling free. Free to experiment and create from a place of alignment. She has tried to do this before and learned a lot from the process. This time, she feels better equipped and prepared for what to expect and how to navigate in a way that stays true to her intentions.
As Guest Curator at Minds Eye Studio Art Gallery and Yoga Studio, I am pleased to present Roshan’s work at the gallery this month. AKASHA centres on Roshan’s personal experiences. Learning about the Akasha and deepening her understanding of her ancestors' connection to nature and Source is an integral part of Roshan's process of discovery, decolonization, and experimentation through abstract mixed media artwork and installations. Using a variety of media as well as found and upcycled objects, Roshan contemplates what it means to live in reunion with identity and belonging, the energetic importance of place, and what it means to live in community and harmony with ourselves, each other, and nature.
AKASHA is on view until August 6th. Private viewings are available and the artist reception will be held on Friday July 29th, 154 Victoria St. S. Studio#7, Kitchener at 7:30 pm. Event page is here. This will be a catered event, with amazing Pashtun x South Asian cuisine from The Pulao Gals, music, and performances.
“ I think it’s also important to remind ourselves that there are many different ways of being and seeing the world, and we can hold space for all of it if we try.”
The AKASHA exhibition features three collections: People of Colour, Mythologies, and Divergence. The People of Colour collection is about melanated joy and resilience, while also standing with the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and showing positive progression as people learn how to be gentler, kinder, and inclusive. There are themes of decolonization and deconstructing the patriarchy inherent in these works. For the mobiles, she used washi paper specifically because of its connection to ancient China which is a significant part of her ancestry. Mediums used: willow charcoal, acrylic, watercolour crayon, brass and steel wire, antique objects, upcycled bucket, deconstructed canvases, mini glass bulbs, wireless motion sensor light. Mythologies is a collection of work focused on exploring her ancestry to better understand her own story. Roshan and her husband were watching documentaries on Mongolia earlier this year - the terrain is very unique...flat and then random hills.... streams and rivers carving the land in rugged slices. It all felt like home to her.... She had a physical response to it and it felt like she had ancient memories of being on this land. She started "journaling" by sketching with charcoal onto canvas and did some independent research about the geography and her family's connection to this part of the world. She created the mixed media pieces in this collection to integrate what she was learning about her ancestry with the mythologies of her youth and from her family history. It required her to unearth territory within herself that she hadn't walked on for awhile or ever, and to understand how these shadowy memories of lifetimes gone by, were hers and part of her DNA. She incorporated symbols and pictographs, created new "tablets" for old and new stories to come together. In each piece, it was also important to her to reclaim her stories through the lens of the divine feminine so you will see Her embodied in each piece. Mediums used: willow charcoal, oil paint, oil pastel, melted oil pastel, oil crayon, gesso. Divergence speaks to neurodivergence - seeing the world, processing her life experiences, and using art to express these experiences through her own neurodivergent way of thinking and being. It is also representative of diversity of thought, and counterculture or non-traditional expression should be celebrated. Mediums used: willow charcoal, oil paint, acrylic, washi, upcycled material.
Let’s start with the name of the exhibition. Can you elaborate on Akashic Records for those that may not be familiar with them?
I highly encourage anyone curious about the Akashic Records to do research on this body of knowledge. Gaia.com, Linda Howe (author), and The Goop podcast cover a lot of information on what the records are and how to access them.
In my own words, the Akashic Records are a parallel plane of existence and the records contain the past/present/future imprints of all soul streams from beginninglessness to endlessness of time. Everything we do, say, and feel are recorded. Some world religions refer to it as the Tree of Life. The records are open for anyone to access and become familiar with, and they can be quite useful in understanding ourselves. You can ask questions of the records for deeper insight into your personal history and experiences, and you can ask for guidance to help you on your path forward. It is ideal to approach the records with a calm, quiet, open mind to allow for messages and signals to come to you clearly. Meditation is a great way to achieve this, but keep in mind that you do not need to be a “guru” of any kind.
The reason I named the exhibition AKASHA is because I created the work while I was learning about the records and how to interact with them.
Have you made any personal creative discoveries while preparing for this exhibition?
The single most liberating and decolonizing concept that I’ve learned through my research and art practice is that access to Source, Universe, God (or however you identify with the Divine), and all of the different aspects of connection and communication with pure, loving consciousness, is free and open to everyone. I have also been spending the last three years learning more about the Divine Feminine and how it has been subverted and dominated by white-bodied, patriarchal fragility.
We see shadows and cross-pollination of this through all religions, but religion tries to control and politicize belief in the divine as a way of creating polarizing division to distract, divide, condition, and coerce large populations into conveniently neat and tidy ways of being which fuel the system that preys upon them.
Art, creativity, and breaking free of oppressive structures and systems founded on hierarchical, patriarchal, capitalistic colonialism is the only way that we will find actual freedom as humans.
As a multidisciplinary artist, how do you balance working on different creative projects?
After working with Emm Gryner as my life, vocal, and creative coach, I was able to tap into a better sense of personal motivation, prioritization, and pacing. It takes an almost ruthless resolve to hold our family time as the single most important priority, but everything flows out of that. I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if it weren’t for my family.
I have to pace myself and reconcile my stream of ideas with finite physical energy, family time, and doing what needs to be done to keep our family healthy and balanced. It’s tough because I can easily lose sense of time and space when I’m working in our art or music studios…. And I’m generally working on a few different projects at a time. I don’t try to hold myself to any one thing…. Instead, I try to flow in and out of the projects in a way that feels authentic and in alignment with guidance from my muses. I also tap into my ability to manage large projects and programs, and the skills that I learned from being a business leader in the past, to inform and sustain the creative work I’m doing.
However, our family is at a stage where art is life/life is art for all of us so we feel wholly integrated and balanced by simply being together which leads us to being creative together. Ultimately, this is our version of balance.
What is the rationale for your unconventional hanging methods and uses for canvases?
Convention – what even is that and why? 😊 The more I create, the more allergic I am to conventional ways of being and doing, and this flows into my art practice. I don’t want to use structure, substrate, or media the way they’ve always been used. I want to break tradition and see what happens.
So, I’ve been playing around and experimenting with different ways to hang artwork, different ways of using traditional stretched canvases in surprising, mesmerizing, and cheeky ways. I love combining physics and intuition to achieve this, and using my innate sense of balance to create “how is that doing xyz…????” moments for the viewer. I want them to look, look again…. and then look again in wonder as they realize how things are hanging, or how installations are set up to balance against their own tension and weight.
I applied this to my People of Colour collection to create mobiles that hang with a single wire and frame out from a wall instead of down from a ceiling. I also used this balancing technique in “Is This What We Want?” to show how we are fostering a fragile, narcissistic way of appreciating nature instead of conserving and protecting old growth forests.
What is your dream project?
Something big. Like mega big… kinda like ‘mega builds’ in Minecraft, according to my kids lol… Collaborative…. Community-based. I dream of bringing people together to experience art; to see different possibilities in the world around them and in the worlds inside of themselves.
What do you want people to take away from this exhibition?
Joy and unconditional love. That’s it. I want people to enjoy it and see how we are strong, resilient, and better off when we let go of what we think we’re “supposed to do” or how we’re “supposed to be.” I think it’s also important to remind ourselves that there are many different ways of being and seeing the world, and we can hold space for all of it if we try.
Follow Roshan on Instagram.
Interview by Glodeane Brown
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