ARTISTS TO KNOW: AMARA RAMDHANNY
AMARA RAMDHANNY
Amara Ramdhanny is an Afro-St. Lucian and Indo-Grenadian artist currently based in Brooklyn. Inspired by 90s cartoons, anime and the strong women of color in her life, Amara’s work is a vibrant juxtaposition of social commentary demanding our attention but with a playful approach. Amara also shares her experience designing a sneaker for Nike as an homage to her Caribbean culture.
SHEER: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
AMARA RAMDHANNY: Hi! My name is Amara Ramdhanny and I am an Afro-St. Lucian and Indo-Grenadian (Black/Indian of Caribbean descent) illustrator and creative based in Brooklyn, New York.
SHEER: How would you say your upbringing and culture influence your work?
AD: My upbringing has influenced my work unquestionably in the realm of representation! I grew up in a predominantly Caribbean community but always had strong relationships and interactions with various people of color living in New York. I love learning about BIPOC cultures, both my own as a Caribbean person of mixed Black and Indian descent and the cultures of others, so finding the similarities in cultures and being inspired by them is a big part of my process. My art reflects the environment that I grew up in, in which BIPOC beauty was normalized.
I am also blessed enough to have grown up surrounded by close female relationships: with my mother, aunts, cousins, and friends who inspire me constantly and heavily influence my work as well. My style is also heavily influenced by old 70s/80s/90s cartoons, anime, and manga. I’ve always loved how they used surrealism and vibrance and “cuteness” to convey “heavier” topics and how genres like “magical girl” or “psychedelic” artworks still maintain strength and power while being bold and fun. I love the juxtaposition of colorful work being taken seriously. I see no reason why art should not be cute and fun while still covering important and serious topics, so I’ve always tried to blend fun styles and colors with necessary representation on an array of topics that matter to me as a woman of color.
SHEER: How do you choose the themes and subjects in your work?
AD: I tend to choose themes and subjects that reflect the world around me whether on a grand scale or a personal level. Sometimes my work is meant to comment on larger concepts that I consider important and connected to and sometimes my work is a more intimate and personal commentary on my own feelings and mental state at the time. I definitely care a lot about positive representation and normalization of concepts such as race, religion, gender, body image, etc. and attempt to have my art be accessible to others but at its core, my art does reflect my own thoughts and feelings and has always been a way for me to attempt to convey and communicate those thoughts and feelings with others.
SHEER: What was it like designing "Isle of Spice" for the Nike React Element sneakers and how would you describe the inspiration behind your design?
AD: Designing the “Isle of Spice” was an incredible process!! It was my first foray into sneaker design and my first project on a scale that big. It gave me such a greater appreciation for creatives who are constantly working on and putting out incredible work and solidified my passion as a creative as well, the fact that I got to work on something so personal and important to me and received such a warm reception helped encourage and remind me that my work has value.
The “Isle of Spice” was named after my mother’s home country, Grenada and heavily influenced by her identity as an Indo-caribbean woman and my identity as a mixed woman of Afro-caribbean and Indo-caribbean descent. I wanted to explore the Indo-caribbean identity as both its own, unique identity and its relation to desi and South Asian identity in general. I also wanted to focus on dougla identity (Afro/Indo mix) as it helps shape how I am perceived and interact with the world. I wanted to represent an identity that I personally feel is underrepresented in the mainstream, since more often than not people, especially mixed people of color are boxed into just one identity as Black, Indian, or Caribbean, etc. while I choose to embrace all of those identities and the positives and negatives that come with them in an attempt to open a discussion about things such as Indo-caribbean erasure and Anti-Blackness in the South Asian community and highlight the beauty of mixed identity, normalizing it rather than ostracizing it based off of “otherness”.
The best part of designing the “Isle of Spice” itself was picking the color palette! I wanted to pick colors that would not just speak to my specific identity and my mother’s Indo-Grenadian identity but to all Caribbeans, Indo or otherwise, and to dougla identity as a whole. The vibrant colors chosen were actually found in so many different aspects that some might not think share similarities, like: old Bollywood movies, Holi festivals, spices, and outfits at Carnival. I loved seeing how so many aspects of various cultures are actually more alike than they are different and I used the colors that I chose to encapsulate all of my identities in harmony rather than isolate them.
SHEER: Who are some artists you admire and have influenced your work or process?
AD: There are so many artists that I have admiration for and are big influences on me as not only a creative but as a person. I actually keep diaries filled with lists of inspirations for me, that I could go on and on! I’ve always been such a big fan of Amrita Sher-gil and how her artwork normalized the view of Black and Brown women, the women in her work always seemed so natural to me and reminiscent of women that I, myself, have encountered in my own life.
At the moment though, I really love how Satoshi Kon’s work is able to blend stunning, stylized and surreal visuals with concepts such as unstable mental states and paranoia in works such as “Paprika” (2006) and a way that captures both the beauty and horror of things that most people deal with but is still not really open and normalized in society to discuss.
I love how Judy Chicago provides her own feminist perspective and Nicole Claveloux’s works tells stories through almost dream-like imagery and bold colors, how the works of Jamini Roy, Laila Shawa, and Faith Ringgold are so vibrant and inherently rooted in their respective cultures, and anime and mangas such as “Cutie Honey” (1973), “Dirty Pair” (1985),and “Sailor Moon” (1992) amongst others established a balance of both femininity and strength, all aspects that I find inspiring and hope that I carry on in my own work.
SHEER: In what ways is your art pushing boundaries in the representation of women of color?
AD: I would hope that my art pushes boundaries in the representation of women of color by just normalizing the beauty and existence in ways that they may not always feel represented. I want people to feel that my art both accurately represents them and their identities without exoticifying, fetishizing, or tokenizing them like they might have felt with other aspects of mainstream art and media while also allowing them to take up space in areas that they might not even feel represented in at all, like the art world, surrealism, cartoons, fantasy, comics, etc.
SHEER: How have you been navigating your creative process during quarantine?
AD: Quarantine has actually been a very transformative period for me! I’ve been using the extra time at home to expose myself to different art styles and learning more creatively, watching and reading creative works from various walks of life and gaining new influences myself. I’ve also found it helpful to keep a diary of things that I happen to enjoy or find myself inspired by such as artists, filmmakers, poets, musicians, etc. in addition to daily doodles in a sketchbook. Being quarantined has definitely made me take a look at myself and my art introspectively and focus on what it is that I really want to say and what I want my work to mean to both myself and others.
SHEER: What is the lasting impact you hope your art will have on the world?
AD: I would really hope that my art just gets to take up space in the world. So much of the world as it is right now still hasn’t made enough space for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, and anyone outside of the conventional status quo to fit and be represented accurately, whole-heartedly, and unabashedly as they are, so my biggest hope is that overall that would change as a whole and then my work and I can just exist, take up some of that space. Like books and Black lives, I would hope that my art and my voice matter.
Check out more of Amara’s work below.
NO JUSTICE NO PEACE MEDUSA TEE *50% of all Profits are donated to Justice For Black Girls