Life & Work with Arvid Choudhury of Raleigh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Arvid Choudhury

Hi Arvid, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I began painting mixed media works in the summer of 2021. My need to create in this space is a direct response to suffocation/oppression. I began building a body of work called THE AMERICAN OTHER a COLLECTION OF 50 in the summer of 2021, this collection emerged from the constraints of Covid, the constraints of me existing in my skin & is a direct response to the murder of George Floyd. I began operating in mixed media through an exploration of suffocation. I started exploring and working through the oppression, constraints & traps of being an American Other as well the literal suffocation of George Floyd which arrested his breathing & caused his death by identifying the canvas as skin and covering/suffocating it. In the Covid era families & individuals were caged in their homes & either purchased or did renovations on their homes, the series began with leftover paint. The baseline idea was to treat the canvas as skin, canvases are porous; suffocate the canvas with paint making it a stand in for the American Other.

The lines “and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea” from AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL have always made me consider topography & landscapes, to me this means texture, what is America’s moral texture? From the beginning I wanted my works to be an exploration of texture, hair texture, skin texture, the texture of society, communities, personal fabric.

I’ve had a clear idea of what I wanted my canvases to communicate from the onset of creating in the mode of visual arts. I’m acutely aware of my limitations and the expected limitations society has for me regarding how and what I am. I combine unlikely materials and make it work, I am a Bengali-Latino American from a Muslim family living in the south, I work in mixed media, I am a mixed American who has been denied the title of American-these artworks are me-the American Other.
My experience of not being though I am, just AM, governs the how and why of creating. For me it is the reason I operate in mixed media, because I am always trying to connect and identify with the worlds around me.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has been a challenging endeavor; I have always been creating. I began working on music in 2014, in 2017 I honed in on the initial idea’s for my music & began structuring it as a podcast. The podcast was released episodically in 2020, in 2021 I added another podcast called MUSINGS, WOOLGATHERINGS & …, that same year a third show was added called THE 5 MINUTE MIND WITH ZAF showcasing my brother’s vocal talents, ideas & story telling prowess. All of these shows were released under HVBR- HYE VOLUME BEELAASH RECORDINGS. The circumstances brought on by COVID made it difficult to record, I did pivot, fortunately this was an organic shift; for me visual art is a continuation and refinement of the artistic pursuits prior not a repositioning. All the artwork is under and signed HVBR. The podcasts ran till 2023 now the visual art is front and center- this is where my ideas and creative wants are flourishing.

Creating is smooth, my ideas flood my existence. I know what I want from my canvases and materials and I know how to orchestrate them as a cohesive and coherent unit; I also know that I have to allow the work to exist-this means being patient, I stare at my work at all stages openly so I can understand how I’ll need to proceed. Creating is smooth because I also expect it to be challenging, therefore challenge is built into the process of creating. I’m fine with difficult.

I created bodies of work for over two years, from the summer 2021 till August of 2023 before I began sharing my work publicly in September of 2023. It was crucial that I had a solid grasp on my creative function & purpose before sharing it.

It has been a challenging trek thus far, self marketing and promotion are difficult for me, this being said I’ve already had a couple of solo shows since September 2023 and a few group shows, but it is not enough I want greater reach. Plugging into this art world in a substantive manner is challenging.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a mixed media artist. Currently I’m concerned with materials and texture. I am most proud of my discontent, it pushes me to want. I need to and do make my own materials, and practices/methods. I have five different series with a few hundred pieces between them. I am pushing what is and what can be and I have the bodies of work to back it up.
Additionally I’m proud of my commitment to developing and further pursuing an artistic voice that is emergent form my mixed identity & experience; a voice that has been defined over the course of three podcasts and is constantly being refined over a series of artworks in the visual arts.

If you’re interested in checking out my previous work you can check out show links below:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/musings-woolgatherings/id1558962848?i=1000536542280

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-5-minute-mind-with-zaf/id1558968559?i=1000547149827

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I like best and least about the Triangle is access. If you’re in the right area within the Triangle or have the knowledge and ability to access those areas you can enjoy diversity.

Pricing:

• $1000-$5000 & up (majority)

Contact Info:

• Email: americanother@hvbr.org
• Instagram: americanother50 https://www.instagram.com/americanother50?igsh=ZDIweW40enR5eDgx&utm_source=qr

Image Credits
HVBR