Saira Fawcett (b. 2003) is an Indian-American multimedia artist based in Providence, in her final year at the Rhode Island School of Design. She became devoted to printed media in high school after learning etching, which she admired for its tactile and chemical components.
She studied under the late master printmaker Lou Stovall, as well as filmmaker and painter Donna Cameron— whom she took great influence from as an intern at Washington Printmakers Gallery.
Saira’s work integrates traditional and experimental image making techniques as a framework to combine opposing elements. Her subject matter emphasizes the found, accidental, and subaltern states of being, often using material or tonal contradictions to oppose binary categorization.
She is particularly interested in the role of “fictions” in cultural anthropology, associating the printed image as a kind of simulacra or mutant. Saira investigates printed mutations as a meditation on the influence of repeatability in constructing notions of heritage, faith, and belonging.
She studied under the late master printmaker Lou Stovall, as well as filmmaker and painter Donna Cameron— whom she took great influence from as an intern at Washington Printmakers Gallery.
Saira’s work integrates traditional and experimental image making techniques as a framework to combine opposing elements. Her subject matter emphasizes the found, accidental, and subaltern states of being, often using material or tonal contradictions to oppose binary categorization.
She is particularly interested in the role of “fictions” in cultural anthropology, associating the printed image as a kind of simulacra or mutant. Saira investigates printed mutations as a meditation on the influence of repeatability in constructing notions of heritage, faith, and belonging.
