Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik: We Make Constellations of the Stars

An experimental memoir from an acclaimed Bay Area social-practice artist and activistIn this innovative rethinking of the artist monograph, Oakland-based artist, educator and activist Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik (born 1981) captures conversations with the people who shaped her creative practices and helped her map the tools that are most important to her: wonder, intuition, criticality and belonging. Bhaumik's work has been celebrated by the San Francisco Chronicle and other media for using art as a strategy to connect memory and history with the urgent social issues of our time, as in her 2016 installation Estamos Contra El Muro / We Are Against the Wall, in which she collaborated with artists, makers and community members to recreate (and then smash) the US/Mexico border wall out of brick-shaped piñatas. We Make Constellations of the Stars interrogates not only what makes an artist an artist, but how connection is crucial for personal and political transformation as an artist of color. Visionary and historian Jeff Chang (author of Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip Hop Generation) writes: "Thoughtful, engaged and bold, Sita Bhaumik stares down trauma, cruelty and injustice, but always leads us towards wonder, joy and hope. By drawing connections and making meaning of seemingly unrelated points of light, she reveals new pathways toward belonging and freedom for all. She is one of the most insightful and inspiring artists of our time."