March 3 – April 18
Opening Reception: Friday, March 13, 6-8pm
Location: Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S Livingston St, Ste 100, Madison, WI
Sita and Other Sisters is a 15–30 minutes live, multimodal performance that weaves together poetry, embodied gesture, and audience participation. At its center is the figure of Sita, the heroine of the Ramayana epic, whose story has circulated across South and Southeast Asia in countless retellings. Sita is born from the Earth, wed to Rama, after being rescued from her abduction to Lanka, her purity was questioned. Though she walks through fire to prove her chastity, she remains doubted, ultimately exiled by Rama.
There will be a performance starting at 7:00pm during the Reception, and on two other Saturdays throughout the Exhibition, dates TBD.
In Thailand, Sita has been reappropriated as a symbol of resistance in the #MeToo movement, an emblem for survivors who refuse to carry the burden of shame imposed upon them. Drawing from this lineage, Sita & Other Sisters transforms performance into ritual. The artist stages a burial, inviting the audience to grieve collectively—not only for Sita, but for all women who have been subjected to violence, disbelief, and erasure.
The work unfolds as both mourning and refusal. By gathering the audience in a shared act of lamentation, Sita & Other Sisters disrupts the isolation of trauma and insists on the power of communal witness.
BLUE NAGA is a Thai interdisciplinary artist who works from a place of feminist haunting to create rituals that resist patriarchal and colonial narratives. Her works often animate female entities who refuse to forget violence through site-specific and participatory performances, installations, and video art. BLUE is currently a Fine Arts MFA candidate at UW–Madison. Her work has been showcased in multiple parts of the world, from London to Dubai, including at the UN Climate Meeting, COP28.