Tibetan Identity in Transition

In 2009 Art Refuge UK curated the exhibition ‘Tibetan Identity in Transition’ as part of a programme of activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising.

In the contemporary social sciences, a person’s identity is understood not as inherent or given but as performed and lived-out, a continual ‘work-in-progress’ which negotiates the various positions and possibilities given by personal history, social location, relationships, interactions and transitions. This multiplicity requires us to be continually making and re-making ourselves, within the limits established by our existing social and personal situations.

Identity work is particularly salient and troubled at transition points in life. This is because implicated in transitions are intense processes of change which entail the rehearsal of new narratives of self to guide, define and organise new practices. The art-works exhibited offered a window on newly-arrived refugee Tibetan children’s identity work, as they portrayed their recollections, aspirations and early experiences of exile.

The exhibition took place at the India International Centre in Delhi as part of the festival Tibet: a Festival of Voices in Exile, 2009 The images shown were produced by the children in the Art Refuge Programme during a photography project held in Dharamsala earlier that spring.

Click here to view the images: Delhi Exhibition