Biennale Arte 2026 - Rajni Perera & Marigold Santos

[00:00:07]I've only ever been an artist full-time.

[00:00:10]Um, I work between every single medium, paper, uh, textile, um, different kinds of paint, embroidery, beading, sculpture, dance, costume, lighting. I do everything. Um, and I had first run into Mary Gold's work at an exhibition at the uh, Fondion Fei in Montreal, and I was really enchanted by that work that I saw. Um, and then shortly shortly before that, I had met her in person, but I had not placed the person and the artwork together. So, so when the gallery that I was with at that time had started working with Marold, they invited me to do a solo booth at Armory Art Fair and then I said I want to do it with Marold.

[00:01:00]I work in across painting and drawing, sculpture, sound, tattoo work as well, sometimes performance um and sometimes photography.

[00:01:12]Rajiny and I's practices are similar in that they focus a lot on making. So, uh, what I found that's similar in our practices is that there's an emphasis on the handmade object. So whether that's in sculpture or painting and drawing, there is an emphasis on uh detail, meticulous work, patience and endurance in making objects that are refined and specifically feature our presence through our hands.

[00:01:48]Mythology is something we make today. We make it every day. We make mythology around, you know, who is a what is a mother? What is an immigrant? What is a landscape? How does a person come from that? We make mythology around that today. So, I mean, I feel like every artist probably engages with mythology heavily, whether they know it or not. We make myth so that we can get through our lives, especially if our lives are difficult.

[00:02:20]Mythology I find is the ways that humans make meaning out of disparate objects and disperate experiences. So for me I feel that humans take these fragmented moments in life and then create and weave them together to create some kind of mythology for themselves. I mean I think that's the basis of storytelling and narrative as well. So in my work, because I'm a I live um with a dasporic experience living in Canada and originally being born in the Philippines, my culture is not uh present with me 100% of the time. So what I find is that um I make meaning through the fragmented parts that come together and I weave them together and I express them through abstraction in my work. And so that's kind of how I create mythology in my own work.

[00:03:15]Oh, as an immigrant person, this bianale feels, how do I say this? It feels important to be here. Uh, and to represent an immigrated person because immigrants are the future of citizens on the planet.

[00:03:34]It makes me feel in solidarity with artists who want a better world.

[00:03:40]It makes me feel h it makes me feel like I would I don't know what part of this you are even allowed to air. I mean, you know, when I come here, I feel like I mean, the work that we have in the Arsenal is about immigrants and mothers, but like really for me being here, I feel like it represents mothers in Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan, Congo. It represents mothers in difficult parts of the world. And I'm glad to be here with artists who are also willing to talk about it and be loud about this the time that we're in, the time that this bianali is taking place.

[00:04:35]I think art can affect the world greatly.

[00:04:39]Artists are philosophers. Artists are future thinkers. Artists are the ways that we can think imaginatively beyond our conditions today. So yes, art absolutely can make a difference.