Charles Saatchi showcases thirty-five Indian and Pakistani artists dissecting the social and political processes around Indian politics and identity. Obscure, provocative and partly amateur though undoubtedly complex, The Empire Strikes Back intertwines medium and message for an unapologetic display of Indian Art today. The show runs at the Saatchi Gallery in London until May 7th.

Originally spotted via Racewire, Chang-hyo Bae is a South Korean born, London-based artist playing on Empire and the ambiguity of embracing “Britishness” as the “Other”.

Black Filmmaker (bfm) International Film Festival (IFF) is the leading and longest running platform for Black World Cinema in the UK. The 11th bfm IFF will take place between 6th – 10th November 2009 at the BFI Southbank, Institute of Contemporary Arts, Rich Mix and Shortwave Cinema. bfm IFF 2009 will feature narratives, documentaries and short films from the UK, Africa, the Caribbean, the US, Canada and Europe.

I’ve recently moved to London, officially for Academic purposes, but unofficially to bask in the ultimate Global City and take part in it’s exhaustive list of arts and culture and general weekending inside the city’s heart. London is the bastion of mixing and diffusing, home to every culinary cuisine from virtually every corner of the earth, the premiere fashionista hotspot, and global trendwatching in politics, music and the catwalk.

Last month, Nicolas Sarkozy essentially declared that the wearing of the veil by Muslim women was a “sign of subservience” not coinciding with French ideals, and therefore not to be tolerated in France. He went …

I keep waiting for the moment when I say: “yes, this is where I’m from, this is what my culture means, this is a connection I’ve been waiting for all this time. Everyone I meet keeps saying, “yes you are Canadian, but you belong to India” – which just heightens the disconnect between what I want to feel and how I actually feel.

These are my people, and yet there is an unreality about being here that occupies most moments. I feel as though time and place are suspended. I never know what time it is, either here or at home, and my head spins from the difference in time – day feels like night, and my stomach growls while I sleep.

Bored by the main street, I wandered off into a labyrinth of back lanes housing street side food stalls and tiny children running around on the dusty paths…Landmarks that I thought I were markings in my head disappeared, and the sun’s rays started to beat down hotter and hotter. I realized there were no street names, and precious few women around.

We trawl the news media so you don’t have to.

Czechs Cool to Presence of Workers From Asia :: The New York Times:

Meet Toronto’s little poet man :: The Toronto Star… Watch the Video!

The Intersection of Islam, America and Identity :: The New York Times… See the art pieces

Third culture. To me, the phrase conjures up images of mould growing in Petrie dishes. The third generation of such a mould, perhaps, carefully reared in a sterile laboratory environment. Someone once told me that the phrase third culture referred to children such as myself. Children of twentieth century migrants, children who belonged neither to the culture of their parents, nor the culture of their host land. People like myself who created a new, hybrid third culture, a marriage of the heritage of our parents with the culture of our adopted homeland. But what happens when you have not one adopted homeland but two or three?