Quishile Charan is an emerging artist living and working in Aotearoa, New Zealand of Indo-Fijian heritage. Charan uses traditional modes of textile making to reflect upon the landscape of Indentured Labour and the on-going neo-colonial affects on the Indo-Fijian community. Wood-carved flora and fauna stamped onto naturally dyed cotton cloth serves as a tool to re-write and restore ownership of Indo-Fijian history. Through grassroots methodology, knowledge is kept and stored with each length of fabric created, both a form of visually-expressed oral storytelling and an offering to the girmitiyas, the ancestors of Indenture. Recent projects include The Tomorrow People (group), Adam Art Gallery, Wellington (2017); Namesake (with Salome Taluvasa) Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, 2017, A Turn of the Wheel (group), Malcolm Smith Gallery, Auckland, 2017; New Perspectives, ARTSPACE, Auckland, 2016; and Samundar and Haldi at Objectspace, Auckland, 2016. Charan has a BFA (Hons) from Elam School of Fine Arts, The University of Auckland.
