Quote

It's exciting to consider how art, in its ability to reveal, can be ahead of the artist.

Vivek Shraya

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Vivek Shraya
Ability
Artist
Art
Reveal
Ahead
Consider
Exciting

More quotes by Vivek Shraya

Image
Writing about racism requires a directness that writing a love story does not.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written, especially in relation to gender.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I didn't want to give the white reader an opportunity to think of racism as imaginary - a sentiment that is already a central barrier in addressing the problem.
Vivek Shraya
Image
In poetry, I didn't have to provide resolution. I could ask hard questions without feeling responsible for the answers.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I recently did a reading at an elementary school in Ottawa, and one of the children asked me if I was a girl. I said yes. Another child commented that I had a deep voice. I responded: Can girls have deep voices? There was a pause and then the group responded, Yes!
Vivek Shraya
Image
I have dedicated a significant portion of my time and artistry to making art that addresses various forms of oppression, including white supremacy, misogyny, and biphobia.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I think white artists have a responsibility to be not only naming white supremacy, but to be using their power and privilege to support artists of color.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then accidentally sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?
Vivek Shraya
Image
In my thirties, I have felt a greater urgency to make art that highlights what it feels like to be racialized, likely due to living in a country that obscures our racism with the idea of multiculturalism.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My interest in language is steadfast, but I think each project and its accompanying intentions dictate how language must be used.
Vivek Shraya
Image
My art career often feels less like an art career and more like a career in educating, usually by using my body.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Of course, I can't separate my queerness from my brownness - if anything, my queerness amplifies my brownness, and vice versa - but I spent so much of my early twenties trying to erase my differences, often without awareness of what I was doing.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I worry about what Trump will inspire in Canada, especially given incidents that have already occurred here since the election.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Children are receptive to talking about gender creativity, confirming the importance of the book as a means to instigate this dialogue at an early age.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As a general rule, I tend to collaborate with artists whose work I admire.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I don't yet know what style will be required for my next novel, but my sense is that each book will involve a new relationship to language.
Vivek Shraya
Image
Making music has been connected to one of my greatest heartaches, because my own music has never quite connected with audiences. But it was this heartache that pushed me to explore other artistic avenues, like writing and filmmaking, and I ultimately feel most at home in a multidisciplinary environment.
Vivek Shraya
Image
I couldn't write about love without writing about hate - specifically, how the experience of hatred embeds itself in the body and prevents love from entering or leaving.
Vivek Shraya
Image
As a brown artist, I have mixed feelings about my relationship to art and my responsibilities post-Trump.
Vivek Shraya