Faculty of Design

Graphic Design

Shovemiya Packiyanathan

South Asian Representation

This photography series explores South Asian identity through intimate portraiture, color, and texture. Framed by traditions, textiles, and symbolism, the work presents a nuanced representation of South Asian femininity and cultural pride. Through controlled lighting and rich tones—particularly red, gold, and deep shadow—the images speak to both the visibility and invisibility of diasporic identity. Each photograph is an act of reclamation, capturing the quiet resilience, ritual, and beauty often underrepresented or misrepresented in mainstream visual culture.

“As a Tamil-Canadian artist, I am constantly negotiating the duality of my identity—rooted in ancestral memory while shaped by diasporic experience. This photography series is a visual meditation on that in-between space, where tradition and modernity coexist.By working with low light and warm tones, I invoke a sense of intimacy and reverence. The use of sheer fabrics, jewelry, and fairy lights in this piece emphasizes both visibility and concealment—how our cultures shine through us and how we, at times, feel hidden within them. The series is a love letter to South Asian womanhood, familial legacy, and the ways we embody cultural pride through everyday rituals, adornment, and presence.This project resists tokenized representation. Instead, it aims to reflect the emotional textures of being seen, remembered, and radiant—even in shadow”