Critical Distance DIRECTORY Whyishnave Suthagar

Whyishnave Suthagar is a new media artist & graphic designer from the GTA. Her practice focuses on creating site specific installations using projection, light design, thread based weavings and original soundscapes. Her works play with light, space and sound to create immersive meditative experiences.

Themes she explores in her work include ancient myth, dreams, memory and the subconscious mind. More specifically she uses the ideas found in ancient myth to understand the world we live in today. Her work is meant to access her present surroundings using a lens of the past. As a second generation Tamil-Canadian, Whyishnave often draws from her own heritage, being of a family who immigrated to Canada from SriLanka during the civil war of 1983-2009. Through her art, Whyishnave visually assess the juxtaposition of her upbringing in a home with Tamil/Eastern beliefs systems, embedded int h landscape of Canada with respective Western values.

Whyishnave has received her BFA from McMaster’s School of the Arts, was a part of the 14.0 Remix Project, and is presently a tenant in the HXOUSE Re-Entry program. To date she has shown her work at the McMaster Museum of Art, MUCH Music HQ, the Gladstone Hotel, Manifesto TO, the Drake Hotel, Stackt Market, MOCA, Artscape Daniels Launchpad, Toronto Distillery District, Gerrard India Bazaar BIA and the Bradley Museum. She has also helped create community-based art and design projects in collaboration with STEPS Public Art, the Daniels Corporation and SickKids.

Image Caption: Whyishnave Suthagar, Interwoven Dimensions, 2020. Nuit Blanche Prototype Installation for Toronto Arts Council. Courtesy the artist.