Yukti V. AgarwalWORKINFO
(Re)Painting Histories

Confronting colonial histories through museum label design and digital experiences.
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The digital and physical museum label intervention: (Re)Painting Histories, attempts to problematize and acknowledge the realities of cultural exchange and erasure, evident in the production of the European works on view in the Grand Gallery of theMuseum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design.






 This intervention was installed for various gallery events and openings at the Museum. In collaboration with theSaxena Center for Contemporary South Asia and The Fleet Library, the intervention was originally concepted for the launch of desi-gned: New England’s first publication for the South Asian diaspora. Later, the labels were integrated into theRISD Museum Education Department Teen and K-12 education programs.
    The narratives of European culture are told without mention of their colonial origins. Histories of resource extraction and non-European aesthetic formativeness are rarely referenced in the architectural epicenters, or 'grand' galleries of museums. 


    From Rembrandt's Mughal influences to the South Asian origins of the color yellow, we worked to curate a journey through the RISD Museum's collection far beyond what is exhibited on the walls of the Museum’s Grand Gallery.







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    (Re)Painting Histories, 2023

    Personal Project at RISD Museum, 2 weeks
    Label writing, experience design, museum curation, digital and physical intervention

    Edited by Alexandra Poterack, Kate Irvin
    Label design by Mehek Gopi Vohra

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    Brown, RISD students launch New England’s first publication for South Asian diaspora

    Images by Kaiolena Tacazon, Boris David Gramajo, Erik Gould