“I recall an encounter with Indian miniature paintings from the first time I went back to India, almost 33 years ago and 15 years after my family immigrated to Australia. I was struck and enchanted by the colour combinations in the paintings, and the ambiguous pictorial spaces and compositions of the court paintings particularly.”

Dr Rhett D’Costa reflects on his personal experiences and encounters with Indian Rajput paintings, the palaces and forts in India that the paintings depict, and how this has influenced his artistic practice.

Speaker

Dr Rhett D’Costa is an artist and lecturer in painting at RMIT University. Born in Bombay, India, Rhett migrated to Australia at an early age. His practice led research draws on his hybrid background of British, Australian and Indian cultures translated across drawing, painting and installation processes.

Rhett’s most recent projects have centred on the role of resilience and optimism in the intersecting areas of migration, place, multiculturalism, identity, and belonging, particularly in the context of mixed-race communities. Rhett’s artistic research examines the agency and role an artist as researcher can have within these often precarious and unstable spaces.