I know you Louise Boothe
May 5 – June 4, 2005
Rachel Kalpana James
Reception: Thurs, May 5, 6-8:30 pm

Rachel Kalpana James, I know you, Louise Boothe, 2003 details from digital collage

In my art practice, I explore the construction of identity: how image, text and personal experience conspire to build identity and a perception of history, others, and ourselves that is both part real and part fiction. I Know You, Louise Boothe (2002–2004) is an installation which centres on the actual 1941 diary of an ordinary, Toronto woman named Louise Boothe. The various components of the installation mediate ways of encountering the diary to reveal the process of how we know someone. Perhaps, imagining who Louise Boothe is becomes an archeological dig of sorts, where identity itself is greater than the sum of its parts.

Rachel Kalpana James is a Toronto-based visual artist. She has exhibited her installation work locally and internationally, notably at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Bose Pacia Modern (New York), Habitat Centre (Delhi) and Croweaters Gallery (Lahore). She is the current Director of SAVAC and will soon attend Goldsmiths College, UK for her MFA.