The worlds that Rajni Perera constructs prophesy possible futures of diasporic cultures for Indigenous and racialized peoples. The beings that populate her horizons are hybrid, mutated, in fusion with nature or elements such as fire and water. Their bodies transcend human conceptions of sex or gender and explode the prism of white power from a decolonial perspective. While activating the codes of science fiction and transhumanism, Perera telescopes past and future by taking inspiration from non-Western ancestral narratives to imagine new humanoid forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TheTraveller<\/em> series, directly influenced by Perera\u2019s Sri Lankan roots and her experience as a third culture child in Canada, is a shining example of her performative approach to the future. Using a colourful and richly ornamented aesthetic based on Indian techniques and styles engendered by the colonial occupation of South Asia, Perera portrays migrants of the future, people who have reached an optimal evolutionary state, following the multiple transitions and dis-placements of past generations. Many-eyed and adorned with objects and jewellery, armour, draperies, hoods, and masks, they are well protected against any physical or spiritual dangers that they may face on their journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she does in her Dancers<\/em> and (m)Otherworld<\/em>series, Perera extends Traveller<\/em> with murals and sculptural objects \u2014 luminaires, furniture, jewelry, garments, busts\u2014many resulting from collaborations with other artisans and artists, including Nep Sidhu and Shary Boyle. The encounter of these objects, made using varied techniques and materials, reinforces the sense of a temporal shift, as though they were archaeological traces or anticipated confirmations from a future multiverse in which marginalized people \u2014 refugees, immigrants, and the displaced \u2014 have vanquished oppression and the ecological finitude of Earth. Through her portraits of deified beings and artefacts, Perera already<\/em> creates a mythology of the future as a metaphor for the passage from survival and resilience toward a flourishing, prosperous, and emancipated existence. Her futurism is a force in motion that suggests a continual regeneration of the margins beyond known conceptions of time and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the French by Louise Ashcroft<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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