Futures

Rajni Perera came to Canada with her family in early childhood from her birthplace, Sri Lanka, and has established herself in recent years as one of Canada’s leading contemporary artists. Her paintings and sculptures draw on such diverse traditions as science fiction, Sri Lankan art, Indian miniatures, medieval armour, and South Asian textiles, gathering in all of history as she looks ahead to an uncertain future threatened by climate change and looming social inequities. Her future goddesses prevail over dystopic realms, mutating to adapt to their challenging environments. Looking to the past and to the future, and endowed with a powerful diasporic imagination, Perera is singularly equipped to express the chaotic, often frightening, and sometimes hopeful world in which we find ourselves today.