‘Crossing Cultures’ exhibition, featuring Nilou Moochhala ’94, premieres at A.P.E. Arts Gallery

By Rose Cohen ’22 & Siona Ahuja ’24

Arts & Entertainment Editors

Photo by Nilou Moochhala '94

Suitcase from Nilou Moochhala ‘94’s, “My Very Own Suitcase Series,” which represents stages of the artist’s life. This artwork, along with the eight other suitcases in Moochhala’s series, was displayed at the A.P.E. Gallery in Northampton, Massachusetts from March 9 to April 1.

The sound of waves crashing set to projected clips of the ocean. A collection of white paper boats made by gallery visitors. Collages of vintage family photographs. These were some of the pieces on display at the “Crossing Cultures” exhibition at the A.P.E. Arts Gallery in Northampton from March 9 to April 1. 

The six visual artists whose work made up “Crossing Cultures” used five different regions to help define the themes of the exhibit. Throughout their pieces, lens-based artist Astrid Reischwitz, Peruvian Latinx Curator Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Professor at Lesley University Vivian Poey, Iranian artist Shabnam Jannesari, Multidisciplinary Artist Nicolas Hyacinthe and Nymdesign Art Director Nilou Moochhala ’94 explored issues of identity, immigration and displacement through a variety of mediums, such as paintings, collages, photographs, videos and 3D installations. 

Displayed in the center of the gallery, a set of 10 multicolored suitcases, installed by Moochhala, seemed to tie these different parts of the exhibit together. Each piece of baggage included in Moochhala’s portion of the exhibition, titled “My Very Own Suitcase Series,” tells a different story about the various stages of the artist’s life. For instance, “Choddna (Leave)” highlights her departure from her hometown of Mumbai to study art at Mount Holyoke. Using colorful string and passport photos of her parents and siblings, Moochhala maps out the migratory journeys of members of her family. 

 “So it’s this sort of duality, right, that rises out of not belonging in any place,” Moochhala said, reflecting on the meaning of “Choddna (Leave).”

 “We were all foreigners to our own country,” she continued.

Graduating from Mount Holyoke as a studio art major with a concentration in economics, Moochhala went on to complete a special master’s program in graphic design at the Yale University School of Art. She credited the late Mount Holyoke Art History Professor Robert Herbert in “changing [her] pathway and allowing [her] to be creative.” 

Walking around her exhibit, a package full of labels for her artwork in hand, Moochhala pointed to certain family memorabilia featured in her work. Fragments of handwritten letters, an altar dedicated to colored pencils, glass vials and a sewing kit adorned the interiors of these mismatched pieces of luggage. “One actual common thread between all of us is family,” she said, referring to the artists featured in “Crossing Cultures.”

Moochhala chose to use suitcases to convey the idea of the “ugly” emotional baggage we carry around. “Well, the idea of crossing cultures and obviously leaving home, you go from one place to the other, and at the least that’s the one thing you bring with you,” she said, further explaining her decision to utilize suitcases. “It seemed to perfectly fit with the show.”

To Moochhala, suitcases alluded to the inevitable challenges faced by herself and other immigrants. “You are also a transcriber of your culture in another place. … How do you carry that [culture] forward into the next generation?” Moochhala said. 

Unlike the artwork of Hyacinthe and Reischwitz, Moochhala described her portion of the exhibition as more textural. 

“Each [suitcase] has to evoke a different sort of feeling and sensation, whether it’s floaty, whether it’s prickly, whether it’s inviting, whether it’s blocked,” Moochhala said. 

Standing beside her portion of the exhibition, which stood at the forefront of the gallery, Moochhala defined what art means to her. As Moochhala tried to put the mode of creativity into words, she explained that she thinks of artists as cultural storytellers. 

“Whether you’re a writer, an artist, musician, whatever creative discipline you’re in, you’re almost reflecting on what is going on currently, at this point in time, to everybody around you,” Moochhala said. “That’s a separate sort of way of seeing, right, it’s a separate perspective. So if you can get people to understand that and see it, then you’ve done your job.”

Indigenous artists in residence present ‘Ancestral Memories’

By Lucy Oster ’23

Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Ellen Alvord ‘89

At “Ancestral Memories: Artists in Conversation,” a team of Indigenous Australian artists stand in front of a sculpture by Hector Dionico Mendoza

The Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and a team of Indigenous Australian artists, hosted an event on Thursday, April 7, called “Ancestral Memories: Artists in Conversation.” 

The artists, Maree Clarke (Mutti Mutti/Wamba Wamba/Yorta Yorta/Boonwurrung), Nicholas Hovington (Palawa), Kerri Clarke (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba), Mitch Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji) and Molly Mahoney (Boonwurrung/Wemba Wemba/Barkindji), are currently in residence at Mount Holyoke as a part of Assistant Professor of Anthropology Sabra Thorner’s “Special Topics in Anthropology: Decolonizing Museums” seminar. The class has been focusing on centering Indigenous knowledge practices and art making over a more colonial lens. 

Associate Curator of Visual and Material Culture and Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Coordinator Aaron Miller and Thorner opened the Ancestral Memories event. Thorner gave an updated version of the usual Mount Holyoke College land acknowledgment, urging audience members to understand the history of the Nonotuck land that the College is situated on. 

“I encourage all of you to learn about and to amplify the contemporary work of the Indigenous nations whose land you’re on, and also endeavor to support Indigenous sovereignty in all the ways that you can,” she said.

Thorner also connected her land acknowledgment to the artists. “Your engagement with and your witnessing of the work of these artists is part of that process, so I extend my gratitude to you for coming here today,” she said. 

“My own use of my own land acknowledgment is going rogue, right? I used my own because I feel like it’s more meaningful and more impactful and more accurate and more thoughtful than the one that is being presented to us to offer up as the official body of the College,” Thorner later shared.

After Thorner’s statement, Maree Clarke, one of the visiting artists, took over. Maree Clarke gave a presentation about her work as an artist reviving cultural practices in Southeastern Australia. She described herself as an “independent multidisciplinary artist and curator with more than 30 years working with First Nations people.” She spoke about Aboriginal art practices and how they are connected to country, culture and place, and shared stories about taking the teeth out of kangaroo roadkill to make necklaces. 

“[Maree Clarke] described the PowerPoint she presented as her life’s work. … It was going through everything she had done artistically and it was really cool to see how it had changed over the years, but also how she had gotten more influence from her family,” ​​Domenica Guaman ’22, an anthropology and Spanish major who attended the event, said. Guaman is also a student in Thorner’s seminar. 

Ellen Alvord ’89, the associate director for engagement and Weatherbie curator of academic programs, shared a similar sentiment to Guaman. 

“Understanding the scope of what [Maree Clarke has] done in her lifetime, to bring those practices back in her research, and in her connection with her family, and bringing in new generations to take up that practice — I thought that was really inspiring,” she said. 

Much of Maree Clarke’s presentation heavily involved her family, who were also present at the Ancestral Memories event. They sat at a table next to where Maree Clarke presented, acting as a panel for the question and answer session that followed Maree Clarke’s presentation. 

Erin Foley ’24, an anthropology and political science major who attended the event, said, “It was … really cool to see a multigenerational family working together collectively as artists.” Foley asked a question during the question and answer session about how their community has changed over the years, to which Kerri Clarke mentioned feeling “secure” in passing on cultural practices to the younger members of the family, Mitch and Molly Mahoney. 

The final product of Thorner’s “Special Topics in Anthropology: Decolonizing Museums” seminar is a collaboratively-made possum skin cloak as a form of Indigenous knowledge transmission. The visiting artists are at Mount Holyoke, guiding and teaching the students in that class how to make the cloak. The cloak is not yet complete, but the MHCAM is looking to acquire it once it is. 

“We are planning on putting the work into a show for the fall that focuses on some broad themes and conversations around indigeneity,” Miller said.

“The cloak and the conversation about the project on campus and the work that [Maree Clarke] and her family are doing: that’s going to be one conversation in a broader exhibition. Thinking about place, thinking about how objects end up in museums and then go home again. This is about reclaiming traditional ways and sharing those with communities,” Miller added.

Community was a common theme at the event. “I think that for me, [the event] really became about not only having the artists speak to and reach a broader audience in this bigger context of decolonizing museums,” Thorner said. “It also became about a kind of mission for me, to be like, ‘this has been so hard. I am going to stand up and thank everyone.’ And part of that is about forging community. This is hard, we’re in a hard moment, but it can be done. And it is so necessary to be in community and in solidarity with each other.”

Alvord concluded, “There’s just so much meaning, and so to think about having Mount Holyoke students be a part of that process, and have something involved in storytelling that’s meaningful in this moment, to that group, is really exciting.”

“Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement,” arrives at APE Arts Gallery

By Rose Cohen ’22

Arts & Entertainment Editor 

Art to see in the area this week

The art exhibition “Crossing Cultures: Family, Memory and Displacement,” will take place at the A.P.E. Arts Gallery in Northampton until April 1. The show, which had its premiere on March 9, revolves around themes of family, memory, displacement and identity. The six visual artists whose work make up the exhibition — Nilou Moochhala ’94, Astrid Reischwitz, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Vivian Poey, Shabnam Jannesari and Nicolas Hyacinthe — use vintage family photographs and paintings, among other mediums, to examine what the idea of “home” means when many people are currently migrating from country to country.