The Scrawny Beauties of Ethni City is Seema Mattu’s first solo exhibition, and a deep dive into SEEMAWORLD – an immersive, multi-channel realm and future streaming facility. With a specific interest in lo-fi high fantasy storytelling, SEEMAWORLD is framed as a theme park, and explores systems of caste, queer sorcery, fan labour and how gender is classified through digital technologies. Through mixed-media animation, IRL (In Real Life) environment-building, audience interactivity, audio installations, visual spectacle and trickster vibes, The Scrawny Beauties of Ethni City embarks on the origins of SEEMAWORLD’s ongoing, unfolding caste-centric narrative, Engodamy. This is a play on the term endogamy, which refers to the custom of marrying within one’s own group. Engodamy is set in the world-built world Youterus – and, alongside its main inhabitants, places you at the mind and soul of its oldest city: Ethni City.
The Scrawny Beauties of Ethni City by Seema Mattu is curated by Peter Bonnell and Jodi Kwok. With special thanks to Helen Starr and Emily Jones; and Wysing Arts Centre.