‘‘when a person goes missing, they leave a small space – no bigger than twice the size of themselves – for everyone to gather and grieve inside’’
Radha is a writer and artist whose work intersects across colonialism, nature, religion and the future. Following on from her text ‘Notes From Aarti’s Diary’, which she developed during her time on g39’s UNITe programme (2019), ‘Finding Aarti’ is the story of a young woman who goes to space in search of her missing sister…
Over the past several months, she has been in conversation with Simisolaoluwa Akande (Ojumo Ti Mo) and Tina Pasotra (But Where Are You Really From? / I Choose) – two phenomenal artists / filmmakers who’ve explored grief, joy, agency and familial relationships in their works, amongst other themes. Alongside these talks, ‘Finding Aarti’ also draws inspiration from ‘Fatima’s Letter’ by Alia Syed(1992) to create a moving-image that sees the protagonist travel through the galaxy, exploring the delicate magic of different planets and communicating everything back to her mother on Earth.
In a series of letters – written on different planets – ‘Finding Aarti’ explores the relationships between mothers and daughters, the Earth and other planets to build a dialogue reflecting on reconciliation, forgiveness and curiosity to provide an answer to what it means to live on Earth…or at least guide to you own conclusion.