International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Gupta, N. (2024). Arts-based research as a cultural therapeutic: Facilitating sexual empowerment for Desi women across the diaspora through South Asian erotic folk art. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(si1.22). http://doi.org/10.26209/ijea25si1.22

This case study describes a liberatory arts-based research project that was disseminated to the public as a culturally therapeutic intervention to facilitate sexual empowerment among South Asian (Desi) women across the diaspora. DESI EROS is an arts-based phenomenological research project that explored the question: “What is the lived experience of reclaiming erotic power among women from the South Asian diaspora, in light of our cultural contexts?" Six Desi artist-collaborators participated in this project by contributing poetry and prose about their lived experiences of reclaiming erotic power. I created phenomenological paintings that expressed the essence of their erotic power through surrealist folk art in the style of Frida Kahlo, with cultural symbols imbedded in each painting. The South Asian erotic folk art is available as public scholarship on www.desieros.com. The arts-based research findings were also disseminated to South Asian community members in North America and India through workshops I facilitated in collaboration with non-profit South Asian organizations for the duration of several years—including facilitating “erotic art therapy” workshops for dozens of Desi women and gender non-conforming South Asians. This case study recounts the caring relationships and intimate community-building that unfolded when presenting South Asian erotic folk art as a springboard for cultural healing. It also discusses the transformative force of creative collaboration for projects of liberation psychology and feminist care ethics, which became the guiding value that allowed the emancipatory and loving potential of DESI EROS to be actualized.