#MondayMood Ushamami – ‘Broadcast to a New Window’

NYC-based Ushamami’s ‘Broadcast to a New Window’ is the pleasant result of exploring creativity and expression under limitations – something that only a select few have cleverly achieved so far. Longing for freedom, the video zooms into blue skies beyond the city’s skyline before Ushamami hosts a series of intimate webcam parties. It’s a simple but effective approach as selfies switch between a montage of friends dressing up and having fun in front of a green screen; a stylistically sweet dedication for the currently quarantined generation. ‘Broadcast to a New Window’ is released outside of the standard release model, exclusively as a Dropbox link through a dedicated microsite – as an expression of free creativity in a time of absolute restriction.

“I started this project when New York was a week into lockdown and I was still trying to figure out how to reckon with everything. I was inspired by the emerging canon of online quarantine art. It felt like the most intuitive way to make sense of this moment. So my partner, who directed the video, and I decided to make something with the resources directly available to us.

Our little virtual world communicates the duality of right now – the joy and beauty of turning inward, being present with our immediate surroundings, sending love over the web, all existing simultaneously with anxiety, grief, frustration, and the world crumbling. This track is about my hope that this moment will be a wake-up call for those who need it; there was never a “normal” to return to in the first place. Using the virtual landscape as our setting felt essential because that is our only point of connection right now, and it’s where our community is gathering to carve out windows to our post quarantine future.“

Ushamami (Mena Sachdev) is a producer, multi-instrumentalist, DJ, and vocalist with a distinctly addictive sound that fuses RnB, alt-pop, and electronic. Ushamami’s art centres her identities as a non-binary South Asian, and she has committed her musical career to create space for queer futures, an active member of NYC’s queer arts scene as a collaborator, performer and host. She has performed all across the US & Canada, from DJing at underground New York clubs to playing at POP Montreal, Brooklyn Museum, and Knockdown Center- sharing bills with artists such as Yves Tumor, Princess Nokia and Phony Ppl.

Head to newwindow.online for the full ‘Broadcast to a New Window’ experience

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Photos by Jasdeep Kang