This video is documentation of an online conversation between Nahed Mansour and artist and curator, Swapnaa Tamhane which took place on Instagram live on April 29, 2020. Mansour and Tamhane discussed Mansour’s recent exhibition at Hamilton Artists Inc., Little Egypt Doesn't Dance Here Anymore, and further expanded on the themes explored in Tamhane’s essay, The Many Appearances of Little Egypt.

Watch the documented livestream below:


Swapnaa Tamhane is an artist, curator, and writer. She curated “In Order to Join – the Political in a Historical Moment,” an exhibition of global feminisms with artists born between 1947 to 1957, held at Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, and CSMVS, Mumbai (2014-2015). In Canada, she curated “HERE: Locating Contemporary Canadian Artists,” at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (2017). She has been a Research Fellow with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (2009), and an International Fellow with the German Cultural Federal Foundation (2013). Designer Rashmi Varma and Tamhane curated, art directed, and wrote SĀR: The Essence of Indian Design, published by Phaidon Press in 2016. Her visual practice is dedicated to decolonizing drawing in an attempt to reframe an understanding of form and line. Her process focuses on the presence of her hand in making paper and the treatment of surfaces. She has exhibited her work at Nuit Blanche and A Space Gallery, Toronto; Leonard & Ellen Bina Gallery, Montreal; Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa; and has upcoming exhibitions at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and the Sculpture Park, Jaipur.

Nahed Mansour is a Toronto-based artist, working in video, installation, drawing, and performance. Her research-based practice draws from archival images, found footage, and material-culture to examine notions of power through dance. Over the past decade, her works have investigated iconic entertainers, such as Bill Bojangles Robinson, Shirley Temple, and Sherihan, who become apertures for thinking about the ways racial identities are performed and negotiated in popular culture. In presenting her work alongside material culture that informs her practice, she creates a constellation of images and ideas informed by critical feminist and post-colonial readings of history. She has maintained an independent artistic and curatorial practice while working as an arts administrator, currently working at the Gardiner Museum as Senior Manager, Programs. www.nahedmansour.com