Babita Sharma
© Photo Credits: Babita Sharma, 2026.
Clay Re-Gathered
— Montreal Monochrome XI — TRANSIENT
A workshop facilitated by Babita Sharma.
Sunday, September 6, 2026, from 1:30 to 4 PM.
This workshop is held exclusively as a dedicated, affinity space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) participants.
Montreal Monochrome is an annual conference series for Indigenous, Black, and artists and cultural workers of color, organized by articule's Fabulous Committee. This 11th edition, which will take place from September 2-6, 2026, will expand to welcome guests from across Canada to explore our theme: TRANSIENT. Details about this edition of Montreal Monochrome and the full program.
This workshop intersects environmental sustainability, material equity, and community building within ceramic arts. Standard ceramic production often generates excessive waste and relies heavily on resource-intensive, mined materials. This project addresses those environmental impacts directly while opening up a critical conversation about access: who gets to use these raw materials, why so much usable clay is discarded, and how studio waste can be redistributed to artists with limited resources.
During the single-day session, participants will work hands-on with reclaimed clay and recycled ceramic materials. Using basic handbuilding and forming techniques, makers will explore how to process and reuse discarded clay bodies into finished pieces. Beyond technique, the studio time is structured to encourage dialogue around sustainable studio practices, local material loops, and the ethics of resource extraction in the arts.
To address historical barriers in traditional ceramic spaces, this workshop is held exclusively as a dedicated, affinity space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) participants. Although many global ceramic traditions originated within Indigenous and non-Western communities as communal, shared practices, BIPOC artists have historically faced systematic exclusion from modern studio spaces and high material costs.
By pairing reclaimed materials with a culturally grounded environment, the project reclaims clay as a shared, accessible medium. Participants gain practical skills in eco-friendly ceramic practices, connect over shared histories, and participate in a broader movement toward circular, community-centered art making.
Artist
Babita Sharma (b. 1991) is a multidisciplinary artist of the South Asian diaspora, born in Matsqui (Máthexwi) British Columbia, and currently based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal). Working primarily in mixed media and ceramics, her practice explores identity, memory, and belonging through the lens of her experience as a first-generation Canadian and the daughter of Punjabi immigrants. Her work investigates the intersections of personal histories and the emotional landscapes shaped by diasporic life.
Deeply committed to community-building and systemic change, Sharma approaches curation as an extension of her artistic practice. She views curation as a tool for empowerment, dialogue, and amplifying underrepresented voices. In 2018 and 2020, she curated WOC and In Her Own Image, initiatives designed to uplift women of colour while exploring spiritual, cultural, and identity-based narratives. These projects highlight her commitment to collective storytelling and creating spaces where marginalized perspectives are celebrated.
Sharma’s work is informed by ongoing research into diasporic themes and has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. She studied studio art at Langara College where she developed a multidisciplinary approach grounded in both conceptual inquiry and material research. Her practice is enriched by international experiences, including residencies in Argentina and Mumbai, which have deepened her engagement with global artistic communities and cross-cultural dialogue.
Recent exhibitions include Galerie Erga, Galerie 1040, and Atelier Galerie 2112.
MMXI Schedule
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Opening Reception & Performance
— Starting at 5:30 PM: presented by BLK D’OR featuring Jahsun, Engone Endong, and Cabral Jacobs.
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Threading Frequencies: Longtable discussion
— At 1:30 PM: Featuring artist-run centre leaders: Abedar Kamgari (SAVAC), Sanaa Humayun (Hamilton Artists Inc.), and Alana Traficante (Gallery 44), co-facilitated by researchers Madeline Collins and Suzanne Morrissette (OCAD University).
Open Discussion
— At 3 PM: Open Discussion, continuing on with the themes from the long table discussion all participants are invited to contribute to an open discussion.
Performance
— At 6:30 PM. Amanda Préval — What Remains…
Performance
— At 7 PM: Dani Carter — SWIRL/SADDLE.
Friday, September 4, 2026
Keynote Address
— At 5:30 PM: Keynote Address featuring Daniela Andrade & Fern — p(B)ajubá e a proteção de pessoas trans e travestis. In French but live translation to English will be available.
Performance
— At 7 PM: Joliz Dela Peña — Trespassing the Timeline
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Collective pottery patchwork II
— At 1:30 PM: With atelier clé (facilitated by Laura Leong)
Performance-Workshop
— At 6 PM: Sabina Gámez Ibarra — Desire Paths
Sunday, September 6, 2026
Terms and Conditions: a workshop and discussion
— At 1:30 PM: a workshop and discussion presented by Collective Collective and Parker Mah
Clay Re:Gathered
— At 1:30 PM: : Hand-on workshop with Babita Sharma
Three artists will present their installation works during Montréal Monochrome: Maya Amoah, Nathalie Batraville, and Anna J. McIntyre.
TRANSIENT
TRANSIENT refers to what circulates under pressure: diasporic bodies, minoritized languages, unstable archives, trans/queer and racialized practices that resist regimes of fixation, measurement, and categorization. Against colonial, institutional, and statistical logics that flatten difference into acronyms, metrics, or singular narratives, TRANSIENT foregrounds relational, embodied, and collective forms of knowledge. It creates a space where identity is understood as a process rather than a stable fact, where memory is activated through use and gesture, and where movement becomes a strategy for survival, care, and continual remaking.
TRANSIENT names a situated condition shaped by movement, constraint, and political timing. It is neither a temporary state nor mobility for its own sake, but a mode of existence formed in the in-between: between appearance and disappearance, inside and outside, visibility and erasure. Perhaps we all find ourselves there—in the liminal, fuzzy, and fluid—either momentarily or temporarily. What have we been doing in the interim.
Montreal Monochrome is an annual conference organized by articule's Fabulous Committee (anti-oppression). It addresses the misrepresentation and under-representation of Indigenous and racialized people in the current Montreal arts scene. The event aims to imagine and nurture new and existing connections, solidarities and friendships between Indigenous artists, thinkers, cultural workers and racialized allies. Artists, cultural workers, researchers, community organizers and others are invited to apply. The selected projects may take the form of workshops, round tables, debates, collective works, actions in the public space, interventions, performances, demonstrations, lightning gatherings, among others.
The Fabulous Committee is a space for Black, Indigenous and/or racialized articule members, as well as Black, Indigenous and/or racialized queer and/or trans members, to come together, to have a space to care for each other, to exchange ideas, to share their practice and to see art together. The activities of the Fabulous Committee change according to the needs and desires of the members.
This year’s edition of Montreal Monochrome is made possible, in part, by the Government of Canada, and by the support of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.
The Canadian Race Relations Foundation is committed to building a national framework for the fight against racism in Canadian society. The CRRF will do this through knowledge-sharing and community support in the pursuit of equity, fairness, social justice and systemic change.