The work in this issue deals with art production in Canada, Great Britain and the United States. I've placed an emphasis on visually representing the works of as many South Asian artists as possible, so as to expose their work to a wider audience. From Ranjan Sen's painterly images on the covers to Allan de Souza's laser prints and Sheherezade Alam's ceramic works, a diverse range of media and subject matter are presented. This issue attempts to not only present work but also stimulate a discussion about how work is represented. In Britain, Sonali Fernando describes a situation where art which is about so called identity politics is no longer the art which is fashionable to fund nor market. Instead a new Internationalism is in the cultural air and has become the focus of attention in Britain. It is a truism that acknowledging the need for change is necessary for progress, but social issues do not go away once acknowledged by the powers that be. As a practising artist who has both been included in and curated shows about race/ ethnicity/identity, I believe that in Canada we're beginning to whiff the smell of the same wind that is blowing in Britain, though here the discourse is younger and still fragile. In the so called west, practising cultural producers have talked about issues of access and celebrated our heritage for some time; many of us are now asking,'What's next?' While I recognize that there our those artists who are discovering their own histories and relationships to these histories for the first time, for the intermediate to senior artists the dialogue must move on. I agree with Fernando in her observation that the social need that gave birth to the Identity politics/visual arts team is still there; I wonder whether our only options are to continue highlighting the problems of access and continue to gain a profile for a 'different' art or to deemphasize difference and give up the access and profile that we've all worked so hard to gain.

In the end, I believe that most of us don't want to be labelled, as exotic, different, other, minority, or even South Asian, etcetera ad nauseum. We want to make our work honestly and with respect. We want to explore the possibilities of our different media and our roles as artists, writers, and musicians. We want to practice our art and present it to an informed and engaged audience. As artists our work comes from our own experiences and interests. Identity, through race, sexuality, and other signifiers is often the concern of many contemporary artists; it is something that holds together a lot of the work represented in this issue of Rungh. I believe that we must guard against relying on the current marketability of our ethnicity in making our work look 'South Asian'. On the other hand, many of us have to proceed through our development in stages as we unlearn and relearn history, reclaiming language, images, and traditions, before going on to develop our personal ways of communicating about issues and ideas that mean something to us. Some of us don't identify with being South Asian at all. For these issues to mean something to an audience is another matter; depending on how work is presented. The context provided by curators, catalogues, and reviewers is important in helping to create an informed audience. In my opinion, the level of discussion that currently exists, especially in Canada, has room for advancement and development. The discourse must find room to include dialogues about social issues, aesthetics, art history and criticism, semiotics, and craft. Reviews, catalogue essays and images are important ways through which we gain respect as cultural producers not only with mainstream institutions, but amongst one another. Hopefully this issue will help readers understand that contemporary art practice can be more than just entertainment and celebration; it can question, inform, comfort and provoke.

- Amir Ali Alibhai, Guest Editor, is a visual artist, curator and educator.