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Gulf ⇄ South Asia: Unveiling Stories of Migration

Jennifer Chowdhry Biswas Feb 19, 2021

A colour photograph of a tailor from Gujarat working in Dubai, featured on the Instagram handle of Gulf ⇄ South Asia, is accompanied by an excerpt from an interview.

Self as Other: The Cinematic Space of Kiran Subbaiah

Anisha Baid Feb 22, 2021

Kiran Subbaiah’s oeuvre, evolving through diverse media forms—from sculptural to interactive websites and video installations—is often overlooked in the writing of India’s contemporary art history.

Material Inversals: The Works of Kiran Subbaiah

Anisha Baid Feb 22, 2021

Looking through Kiran Subbaiah's archive online, one finds many premonitions of his retreat. A short story titled The Genius’s Renunciation recounts the tale of a scientist, who, through rigorous study, comes to the conclusion that the only solution to humanity’s problems lies in altering human DNA.

On Witness: An Interview with Sanjay Kak

Senjuti Mukherjee Feb 27, 2021

In this interview, Kak speaks to us about being the editor and publisher of the book Witness: Kashmir 1986-2016: Nine Photographers featuring two hundred images archiving the everyday repressive practices of the state.

Investigating the Digital Image

Anisha Baid Mar 03, 2021

The digital image is often said to present a break in the continuous flow of media—from painting, to the printed image, to photography, cinema and television.

Authorship, Dispersion and the Digital Image

Anisha Baid Mar 03, 2021

Digital images allow for endless iterations or copies to be produced without a necessary loss in quality.

Kheti Badi: Chinar Shah’s Photographs of her Digital Farm

Anisha Baid Mar 09, 2021

Kheti Badi is a series of photographs by Chinar Shah, made as screenshots on the (once) popular Facebook game FarmVille.

Reframing Generic Images: Old Indian Photos by Nihaal Faizal

Anisha Baid Mar 09, 2021

Nihaal Faizal works around the idea of the copy, reflecting upon media documents from popular and cultural memory.

Reframing Generic Images: Landscape Photographs by Nihaal Faizal

Anisha Baid Mar 19, 2021

Through minimalist artistic interventions, Nihaal Faizal reframes the contexts of the images and objects that he appropriates.

Charting Intimacies Online: In Conversation with Chandan Gomes

Anisha Baid Mar 24, 2021

People You May Know is a photo essay comprised of images from an online exchange the photographer Chandan Gomes had with a stranger named Tara Banerjee.

In Person: Amarnath Praful on the Curricula for Lens-Based Practices

Editorial Mar 25, 2021

In the third episode of In Person, Amarnath Praful discusses the curricula for lens-based practices at the National Institute of Design.

On Absent-Minded Archives: Reading Photographs of Objects and Monuments

Ankan Kazi Mar 28, 2021

Based out of Kolkata, Vivek Das started taking photographs as early as the mid-1950s when he was a child, transitioning into the professional sphere as an advertising and commercial photographer in 1974.

A Second Coming: Arko Datto Discusses Dinos of Hindostan

Sukanya Baskar Mar 29, 2021

In Dinos of Hindostan, Arko Datto deftly weaves elements of humour, science and current affairs to construct a world of uncanny political satire.

Social Media and Image-Making: In Conversation with Arko Datto

Sukanya Baskar Mar 30, 2021

Many of Arko Datto’s projects such as Captive Cams, Panopticams and Dinos of Hindostan—existing currently as images on his numerous Instagram handles—explore questions about image-making in the age of social media.

Perennial, Plastic Blooms: Zoya Siddiqui’s A distant Place

Arushi Vats Mar 31, 2021

Titled A distant Place, the online showcase of Zoya Siddiqui’s work, curated by Arnika Ahldag and Vaishnavi Kambadur at Museum of Art and Photography, Bengaluru begins with this rumination on the fragmented meanings and locations of “home.”

Making of a Local Icon: Indu Antony’s Feminist Public Art Project Cecilia’ed

Anisha Baid Apr 02, 2021

Cecilia’ed, a multifaceted public art project by Indu Antony, manifested as a year-long programme of community events around the concerns of women’s safety in urban India.

In Person: Varun Gupta on the Chennai Photo Biennale

Editorial Apr 03, 2021

In the fourth episode of In Person, Varun Gupta, the director of Chennai Photo Biennale discusses audience building and development through the biennale format.

Resolution, Information and Memes: In Defence of the Poor Image

Anisha Baid Apr 07, 2021

Hito Steyerl, a German filmmaker, moving image artist and theorist, has written extensively about the dissemination of media artefacts in the contemporary technological landscape.

The Role of Storytelling in Photography: Conversations with Ritesh Uttamchandani

Ankan Kazi Apr 10, 2021

Uttamchandani was also taken up with the question of withholding or blocking—acts of not-telling—which worked as significantly as acts of accurate reporting, since one is dealing with the lives and narratives of vulnerable people under near-constant state surveillance.

Big Powers, Small People: Revisiting Rashid Rana’s Ommatidia Series

Ketaki Varma Apr 17, 2021

From a distance, the portraits by Rashid Rana have the slightly grainy appearance of pixelated photographs. As one zooms in, the “pixels” are revealed to be photographs of thousands of ordinary young men from the streets of Lahore in Pakistan.

Exhausted Geographies of Karachi: In Conversation with Abeera Kamran, Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani

Anisha Baid May 02, 2021

Exhausted Geographies is a Karachi-based collaborative publishing practice by Abeera Kamran, Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani.

The Violence of Cartography: In Conversation with the Exhausted Geographies Team

Anisha Baid May 03, 2021

In the second part of a continuing conversation with the Exhausted Geographies team, we reflect on the historically fraught process of map-making and the various methods artists use to subvert histories of violence and state power.

Towards a Textured Counter-Visuality: In Conversation with the Exhausted Geographies Team

Anisha Baid May 04, 2021

In this continuing conversation around Exhausted Geographies—a Karachi-based collaborative publishing practice by Abeera Kamran, Shahana Rajani and Zahra Malkani—we talk about the accompanying web project of struggle.

Photography and Pedagogical Inquiries: Conversations with Rishi Singhal

Najrin Islam May 05, 2021

As part of the Chennai Photo Biennale’s series of conversations reflecting on the practices of representation, Suchitra Vijayan spoke with photographer and educator Rishi Singhal on 29 April 2021.

Building Landscapes of Feeling: Abdul Halik Azeez’s day dreamer you are

Ketaki Varma May 13, 2021

Sri Lankan photographer and filmmaker Abdul Halik Azeez’s second solo day dreamer you are is an exercise in excavation.

Art and the Everyday: Abdul Halik Azeez’s day dreamer you are

Ketaki Varma May 14, 2021

In the second part of a conversation between Sri Lankan artist Abdul Halik Azeez and Ketaki Varma, they continue their discussion about his recent solo day dreamer you are.

Fragmenting Reality: An Abyss between the Virtual and the Physical

Sukanya Deb May 25, 2021

Mirroring the digital present, there is a dense, evolving set of information that one can extrapolate from Abyss. The nature of Cyriac’s project allows visual affect to create linkages for the viewer.

Nizamuddin at Night: Gauri Gill Photographs Her Neighbourhood

Gulmehar Dhillon May 31, 2021

Gauri Gill, the contemporary Indian photographer, has spent nearly two decades photographing life in the everyday.

A Quest for Dignity: The Dalit Experience in Nepal

Gulmehar Dhillon Jun 01, 2021

Edited by Diwas Raja Kc and produced by NayanTara Gurung Kakshapati, the book (emerging from an exhibition in 2016) combines text with photographs to depict the brutality and structural injustice that the Dalit community has been subjected to over the course of Nepal’s history.

Imaging the Black Box: Tara Kelton’s Portraits of Uber as Imagined by Its Drivers

Anisha Baid Jun 18, 2021

Tara Kelton is an Indian-American artist whose work probes the traditional figure of the artist (and craftsperson) in relation to the digital.

Resisting the Algorithm: Tara Kelton’s Guided Tour

Anisha Baid Jun 19, 2021

Guided Tour is a series of videos by Tara Kelton, made with screenshots of popular tourist sites in India taken from the Street View feature on Google Maps.

Conversation Piece: Consuming The Packet

Veeranganakumari Solanki Jun 21, 2021

Conversations inspired by everyday encounters with art steered two friends, Abdul Halik Azeez and Sandev Handy, to rope in their friends Venuri Perera, Imaad Majeed, Sharika Navamani, Dinelka Liyange, Cassie Machado and SP Pushpakanthan to start The Packet in 2019.

Digital Witnessing: Devika Mohan’s Screenshot Photographs of 9/11

Anisha Baid Jul 03, 2021

As an artist and designer, Devika Mohan works with digital images ranging from collages to found photography and experiments with digital photography.

Forensic Time and Territorial Dislocations: Exploring the Trauma of Exile through Google Earth

Najrin Islam Jul 24, 2021

Palestinian filmmaker and media artist Razan AlSalah takes the tool of cartography and counters its imperial roots to reinterpret optical regimes of violence.

Imagining Palestinian Statehood: Arabfuturism and the Scope of Radical Fictions

Najrin Islam Jul 25, 2021

Coined by Jordanian artist Sulaïman Majali, the term “Arabfuturism” refers to the anticipation of a future beyond the hegemonic, Eurocentric representations of the Pan-Arab world.

Photographing a Chronic Catastrophe: Rearticulating Gaza through Images

Najrin Islam Jul 26, 2021

Palestinian artists are reconstructing Gaza through images that refuse to spectacularise the violence and the archetype of the “helpless refugee”.

Surveying the Settler: The Neighbour Before the House by Shaina Anand

Ankan Kazi Jul 29, 2021

Shaina Anand directed Al Jaar Qabla al Daar in which eight Palestinian families are provided with a controllable CCTV camera for a closer inspection of their neighbourhoods.

Glitz, Glamour and Guns: Codification of Gender in Showgirls of Pakistan

Sukanya Deb Jul 30, 2021

Showgirls of Pakistan, a documentary film by Saad Khan, introduces us to the contemporary world of Pakistani mujra through the performers Afreen Khan, Uzma Khan and Reema Jaan.

Performance and Evidence: The Heterogenous Image in Showgirls of Pakistan

Sukanya Deb Jul 31, 2021

In this continuing discussion on Saad Khan’s Showgirls of Pakistan, we look at how it reproduces the spectacle of 1980s Lollywood and the subsequent street and popular culture.

Liminality and Plurality: Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Sharareh Bajracharya on KT2077

Jyotsna Nambiar Aug 01, 2021

In this episode, we speak with Sheelasha Rajbhandari, one of the curators, and Sharareh Bajracharya, the director of this year's edition.

A Renaissance of Walking: A Digital Symposium on Walking and Photography

Sukanya Baskar Aug 25, 2021

About Walking was a two-day symposium that investigated the social and political perspectives on what the act of walking could mean across transcultural photographic practices.

Flânerie and Photography: Walking within Different Genres of Photography

Sukanya Baskar Aug 26, 2021

Shuchi Kapoor and Marie-Kathrin Blanck discuss how photographers have conceptually woven the act of walking into their practice.

Archiving the Night Sky: In Conversation with Astrophotographer Ajay Talwar

Najrin Islam Sep 03, 2021

Astrophotography―or astronomical imaging―is a time-bound lens art associated with amateur astronomy. It is defined by the pursuit of taking aesthetically pleasing images, rather than collecting scientific data.

Internet as Site: Smriti Rajgarhia on Creative Placemaking

Jyotsna Nambiar Sep 11, 2021

"When we said site, in our heads, we always meant a physical site... The pandemic made us realise we were ignoring the biggest site that was in front of us," says Smriti Rajgarhia.

Twisting with the Image: Farida Batool on Experiencing Photographs

Veeranganakumari Solanki Sep 23, 2021

Artist Farida Batool has been exploring the experience of the image and its movement through lenticular prints or 3D holographic photographs since 2006.

Wandering the City: Farida Batool on History and Practice

Veeranganakumari Solanki Sep 24, 2021

For Lahore-based artist, Farida Batool, her city has been an integral part of her research and work.

New Ways of Moving Forward: A Conversation with Brendan Fernandes

Anisha Baid Oct 07, 2021

In this first of a two-part interview with Brendan Fernandes, we discuss his practice as well as the impact of the present conditions of social isolation and increasing digital programming on his work.

On the Diasporic Rhizome: A Conversation with Brendan Fernandes

Anisha Baid Oct 08, 2021

In this second of a two-part interview with artist Brendan Fernandes, we continue our conversation about forming connections within this pandemic-afflicted paradigm.

Gathering as a Metaphor: Reliable Copy’s at the kitchen table

Annalisa Mansukhani Oct 28, 2021

Over conversations with Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian of Reliable Copy, the author looks at what it means for food to inhabit an interlocutory site within the exhibitionary space.

In Person: Unsealed Chamber with Sukanya Baskar

Prabhakar Duwarah Nov 04, 2021

For the sixth episode of In Person we speak with scenographer Sukanya Baskar about Unsealed Chamber: The Transient Image, recently on view at Galerie Romain Rolland, Alliance Française, Delhi.

Bridging the Distance: Priya Sen and Nicolás Grandi’s Faasla

Mallika Visvanathan Nov 05, 2021

Faasla (2020) emerges as a result of ten years of friendship and collaboration between Priya Sen, a Delhi-based filmmaker, and Nicolás Grandi, an Argentinian transmedia practitioner.

World-Changing: Disability, Debility and Cinema in We Make Film

Arushi Vats Nov 10, 2021

We Make Film (2021) throws a radical premise at its audience: what if frameworks of knowing and experiencing disability require approaches that exceed accommodationism?

Concerning Photography: In Conversation with Brett Rogers and Sarah Turner

Arushi Vats Nov 25, 2021

In this episode of ASAP Cast, Arushi Vats speaks to Brett Rogers and Sarah Turner as they discuss how they conceptualised the structure of the conference titled Concerning Photography.

Material Media: Emergent Ontologies and Enquiries

Najrin Islam Dec 07, 2021

The panel, “Material, Process,” organised as part of the conference, Concerning Photography brought together curators working with the material medium of photography and its various extra-territorial iterations.

Linguistic Knots and Enduring Images: On Spandan Banerjee's English India

Najrin Islam Dec 10, 2021

Spandan Banerjee’s English India begins with the nuances of the eponymous language as they are passed through generations in the Anglophone academia in Calcutta, a remnant of said instruction in the former imperial capital.

Frames of Reference: On Saba Hasan’s Water Suites

Ankan Kazi Dec 16, 2021

VAICA’s curated programme, Fields of Vision, fills a crucial gap in contemporary art’s engagement with the experimental practices of moving-image-making.

Classification of the Public Citizenry: Data Institutions in Seismic Vibrato

Sukanya Deb Jan 04, 2022

Karthik KG’s video work Seismic Vibrato shows a revolving view of a three-dimensional dot-cloud model of the Supreme Court of India enmeshed with an eerie 8-bit soundtrack.

Re-Mapping the Familiar: In Conversation with Bharati Kapadia, Anuj Daga and Chandita Mukherjee

Najrin Islam Jan 07, 2022

A public platform that brings together video practitioners of Indian origin, the Video Art by Indian Contemporary Artists (VAICA) Festival’s second cycle ran online from 20 November to 18 December 2021, on the principle of free access.

Against the Grain: In Conversation with Bharati Kapadia, Anuj Daga and Chandita Mukherjee

Najrin Islam Jan 08, 2022

In this episode of ASAP Cast, we continue our discussion with Bharati Kapadia, Anuj Daga and Chandita Mukherjee―the curators of the second edition of the Video Art by Indian Contemporary Artists (VAICA) Festival, Fields of Vision.

Vantage Points of Visibility: An Interview with Vamika Jain

Annalisa Mansukhani Jan 24, 2022

Artist and designer Vamika Jain inquires into the evasive tendencies of visual representation through her photography.

Fictive Historiographies: In Conversation with Parvathi and Nayantara Nayar

Mallika Visvanathan Jan 25, 2022

The artist Parvathi Nayar and researcher and performer Nayantara Nayar discusses the work “Chicken Run,” which excavates a history of the Korean War through its connection to India.

Perishable Empires: Re-Historicising the World in Mohini Chandra’s Paradise Lost

Ankan Kazi Feb 01, 2022

Mohini Chandra’s work Paradise Lost—featuring texts, images and performance videos—is currently on display as part of the ongoing edition of the Chennai Photo Biennale.

Nodes of Listening: Reflections on “Artist Encounters” at Colomboscope

Annalisa Mansukhani Feb 12, 2022

The “Artist Encounters” series speaks profoundly of the kinds of acts—of transmission, experimentation, narration—being helmed by the seventh edition of Colomboscope, Language is Migrant.

Radio Colomboscope: Connecting the Aural Histories of the South

Ankan Kazi Feb 14, 2022

Colomboscope 2022 organised an online radio programme titled A Thousand Channels, for which Syma Tariq curated a selection of audio texts, sound works, music, poetry and conversations.

As Light as a Husk: Pallavi Paul’s Walking as Alibi: The Dreams of Cynthia

Arushi Vats Feb 17, 2022

About ten minutes into Pallavi Paul’s online performance Walking as Alibi, a string of voices begin humming haunting tunes as the screen flashes a dictum repeatedly: “Think of a lullaby, Now hum it to yourself.”

Precarities of the Real: Abhishek Hazra’s The Aesthetics of Nandan Flat-Formalism

Annalisa Mansukhani Feb 23, 2022

Abhishek Hazra’s The Aesthetics of Nandan Flat-Formalism is a recorded video-lecture-performance that combines elements of fictionality, participatory art and institutional critique.

Between Motion and Stillness: In Conversation with Priyank Gothwal

Annalisa Mansukhani Mar 03, 2022

The practice of visual artist Priyank Gothwal occupies an intermediary position between the possibilities of still and moving images.

Floating Imaginations: Afrah Shafiq’s Sultana’s Reality

Samira Bose Mar 14, 2022

Sultana’s Reality (2017) is an interactive multimedia work that draws on artist and illustrator Afrah Shafiq’s time spent in the archives at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

3D Celluloid: Experiments in Indian Cinema of the 1980s

Silpa Mukherjee Mar 26, 2022

Malayalam film My Dear Kuttichathan was the first three-dimensional film to be released in India and one of the biggest money-spinners in the history of Indian cinema.

The Stories We Follow: On LAB Collective’s Multimedia Film Dante Katha

Samira Bose Apr 16, 2022

In the opening scenes of Dante Katha, we follow a young girl in pigtails tied with red ribbons, carrying a packed school bag through the sloping streets and markets of Darjeeling.

In Person: Pritish and Anu Bali on Homemakers

Prabhakar Duwarah May 01, 2022

Homemakers is a collaboration between artist Pritish Bali and his mother Anu Bali, a homemaker currently living and working in Amritsar, Punjab.

The Forest as Assemblage: In Conversation with Pujita Guha for the Forest Curriculum

Najrin Islam May 19, 2022

Premised on a cultural-activist ethos, the Forest Curriculum was founded in 2018 by artist-curator Abhijan Toto and media theorist Pujita Guha.

Hypnotic States: On Sibi Sekar’s you are, i am

Ankan Kazi Jul 11, 2022

Sekar’s experimental videos have frequently interrogated the complicity of film’s notoriously patriarchal modes of gazing with constructions of romantic imagery.

Projecting the Gaze: A Conversation with Sibi Sekar

Ankan Kazi Aug 25, 2022

While Sibi Sekar’s short experimental feature You Are, I Am has been previously discussed, the filmmaker also spoke to Ankan Kazi about some of the influences underlying his work of developing a critical cinematic gaze to refuse the normative framework of the visual pleasure in looking.

Amorar Akhyan: Dilara Begum Jolly’s Tales of the Undead

Ankan Kazi Sep 01, 2022

Dilara Begum Jolly's film Amorar Akhyan lies at the cusp of performance and video art, where both forms are utilised to arrive at a more poetic rendering of a haunted space in national memory.

The Algorithmic Image: In Conversation with Karthik KG

Anisha Baid Sep 26, 2022

In this first of a two-part conversation, we delve into Karthik KG's process and consider the implications of algorithmic culture on contemporary image making.

On Biometric Data Collection: In Conversation with Karthik KG

Anisha Baid Sep 27, 2022

In this continuing conversation with media artist and researcher Karthik KG, we discuss the artist’s various projects as well as his research around biometric data collection.

Glitch Art: Dismantling Code Structures

Anisha Baid Sep 30, 2022

Since the early 2000s, artists, musicians and technologists have been engaged in exploring and exploiting the aesthetic and theoretical possibilities of the digital glitch.

Turbine Bagh: On Samosa Packets as Blueprints of Dissent

Najrin Islam Oct 26, 2022

The Turbine Bagh project emerged from an urgency to respond to incidents of mass arrests and incarcerations over the last few years in India and Bangladesh, with both countries currently under neo-fascist regimes.

Revisiting Phototrope: Afterimages and Between Presences

Stuti Bhavsar Jan 02, 2023

Tahireh Lal's second solo show, Phototrope, consisted of an interpretive map of the night sky and a time-based installation, spatially punctuated by text-based works referencing rhymes and verses.

Afterlives and After-acts: A Reflection on Phototrope's Documentation

Stuti Bhavsar Jan 04, 2023

This continued essay focuses on Phototrope’s photographic documentation—a record-making considered crucial for the afterlife of an exhibit—and the agents that frame the readings of the work through its documentation.

Encountering Loss in Growing Like a Tree: Sent a Letter

Sukanya Deb Jan 16, 2023

The third iteration of Growing Like a Tree begins with an invitation in the form of a fossilised edition of Sent a Letter (2008) by Dayanita Singh to the curators Bunu Dhungana and Sadia Marium Rupa.

Have Wheels, Will Travel: Places My Chair Likes to Go

Arti Das Jan 18, 2023

The installation Places My Chair Likes To Go, by Goa-based writer and poet Salil Chaturvedi, was placed at the scenic promenade of Goa’s capital city, Panjim, as part of the Serendipity Arts Festival.

Watching History Unfold: Photography’s French Connections in India

Annalisa Mansukhani Mar 01, 2023

Presenting a critical trajectory of the history of photography through its Franco-Indian intertwinings, the exhibition unfolded across timelines, personalities and themes.

Imaging South Asia: The Turn of a Kaleidoscope

Mallika Visvanathan Apr 24, 2023

With the backdrop of Hangama Amiri’s “Sahar, Nail Salon #1” setting the scene, the symposium Imaging South Asia at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), Saket, brought together a range of artists, curators and critics to ruminate on the notion of South Asia.

Testimony in the Pandemic: A Lecture by Anuja Ghosalkar and Kai Tuchmann

Prabhjot Kaur May 26, 2023

Both Ghosalkar and Tuchmann’s work focuses heavily on the documentary and people’s histories, contrasting them with the increasing advent of digital mediums.

Technotropies of the Otherwise: A Reading in Submergence

Najrin Islam Jun 05, 2023

Staged at the Theaterhaus Gessneralle, Zurich, from 30 March to 6 April 2023, Technotropies of the Otherwise by artist duo Stephanie Knobel and Samrat Banerjee is simultaneously a performance, film and installation that draws the viewer into an immersive pocket simulating aquatic textures.

Body, Landscape and War: In Conversation with Aziz Hazara

Ankita Ghosh Jun 23, 2023

Bringing the everyday experience of growing up in the middle of war in Afghanistan, interdisciplinary artist Aziz Hazara channels his coming-of-age in such a space.

Revisiting Black July: ’83 A Very Short Film

Pramodha Weerasekera Jun 29, 2023

’83: A Very Short Film (2016), a stop-motion animated film by Sumudu Athukorala, Sumedha Kelegama and Irushi Tennekoon, attempts to capture the historical and emotional nuances of Black July.

(Dis)Embarking Across Time: A Conversation with Soumya Sankar Bose

Annalisa Mansukhani Jul 05, 2023

In this continuing conversation with Soumya Sankar Bose, the artist discusses the concerns that drive his practice, experimenting with virtual reality (VR) and the exhibition site as it transforms both the viewer and the artist.

Mourning as Presence: ಮರಣ Marana [Demise] by Vishal Kumaraswamy

Sukanya Deb Jul 07, 2023

In this edited interview excerpt, the artist discusses his work ಮರಣ Marana [Demise] and the translation of grief following death through mourning as a communal practice. Here, bodily movement and the relay of emotions are conveyed in performative gestures.

Curating the Contemporary Photograph: Tanvi Mishra on Moving Definitions | An Invitation To Re-View

Sukanya Baskar Jul 13, 2023

The exhibition collectively presents a series of strategies that challenge and complicate a monolithic interpretation, highlighting the significant role of personal memory and contextual interpretation as essential lenses for engaging with them.

Images of Illusion: In Conversation with Irushi Tennekoon

Pramodha Weerasekera Aug 07, 2023

In this conversation, Sri Lankan artist, illustrator and filmmaker Irushi Tennekoon delves into her practice, her fascination with stop motion and the manner in which the medium lends itself to creative storytelling.

Dichotomies and Discourses: Anuj Malhotra on The Flaherty Seminar

Kshiraja Aug 17, 2023

Between 17 and 23 June 2023, The Flaherty Seminar, a long-standing institution in non-fiction film and cinematic discourse, held “pods” in five cities across the world, including Bengaluru.

Cinematic Cartographies: Anuj Malhotra on The Flaherty Seminar

Kshiraja Aug 18, 2023

In the second part of our conversation with Anuj Malhotra about The Flaherty Seminar, we explore the relationship of the seminar with the cultural landscape of Bengaluru and the larger ecology of experimental filmmaking in India.

Artist as Citizen: A Public Lecture by Rashmi Devi Sawhney

Editorial Aug 22, 2023

In this edited excerpt of the talk, moderated by Arundhati Chauhan, Sawhney explored the categories of “artist” and “citizen” as concepts grounded in language and history.

The Possibilities of Participation: Rashmi Devi Sawhney on the Artist-Citizen

Editorial Aug 24, 2023

In this continuing video, Dr Rashmi Devi Sawhney further expands on her examination of artistic participation and production as a part of her public lecture Artist as Citizen.

Visuality and Blankness: On Nihaal Faizal’s Red Curtains and Green Screens

Ankita Ghosh Sep 04, 2023

Nihaal Faizal’s conceptual interventions present several questions on the ways in which the photographic image and its visual meaning have travelled across time in the not-so-distant past and the potential promise that blankness and representational visuality hold in the future.

Taking it to the Streets: A Public Talk by Ashish Rajadhyaksha

Editorial Sep 27, 2023

In this edited recording of the talk, Rajadhyaksha discusses the concept of expanded cinema. He unpacks how it is understood in legal and juridical terms in India, as well as the legislative and censorial language that often tries to contend with cinema’s remnants beyond the screen.

Cinema Beyond the Screen: Ashish Rajadhyaksha on John–Ghatak–Tarkovsky

Editorial Sep 29, 2023

In this continuing video, Ashish Rajadhyaksha further situates the idea of “expanded cinema” in the context of Indian cinematic histories of production and dissemination.

Re-Appropriating the Conventional: In Conversation with Nihaal Faizal

Ankita Ghosh Oct 19, 2023

In this edited excerpt of a conversation, Faizal delves into his earliest interactions with digital technology, how he came about his practice and exploring the creative potential that the gadget and the copy or replica present.

Fading Realities: The Films of Rafeeq Ellias

Satyavrat KK Dec 06, 2023

Much like his approach to the questions posed to him during the screening, Ellias’ films are best defined by a not self-serious form of the Indic concept of rajas, a value-neutral and energetic sort of passion.

To Experience Aurality: Synaesthetic Notations with Veeranganakumari Solanki

Arundhati Chauhan Dec 16, 2023

Synaesthetic Notations is curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki and recently opened as a part of the 8th Serendipity Arts Festival 2023 at the Old Goa Medical College (GMC) in Panjim, Goa.

Serendipity Arles Grant 2023-24: Image-Making as Social-Political-Personal Praxis

Arundhati Chauhan Dec 23, 2023

Spanning deeply personal narratives of memory, identity, migration and loss, the second iteration of the Serendipity Arles Grant for 2023-24 reflects the multivalent testimonials to image-making.

Viral Rap: Protest Songs on YouTube

Sagorika Singha Feb 29, 2024

Between December 2019 and January 2020, several protest songs against the CAA emerged from Assam and were released on various YouTube channels. The discussion generated around the YouTube protest songs reflects the ingrained anxiety about “illegal migrants”, which is then concretised as this genre of songs propagates the criteria of “ethnic Assamese” identity.

Platform Proficiency: Influencers to Aspiring Creators

Sagorika Singha Mar 05, 2024

Through his instructional videos, Dimpu Baruah shifts the experience of community empowerment in a neoliberal creator economy where garnering engagement online depends on one’s competence in using the platform.

The Infinite Companion: Bombay Tilts Down by CAMP

Ankan Kazi Mar 18, 2024

Shot during the Covid-19 pandemic, Bombay Tilts Down (2022), a seven-channel film by the collaborative studio CAMP presents vertical landscape views, encompassing the sky and sea to land and its varied details. The work is a profound exploration of Mumbai's urban landscape through the lens of working-class perspectives.

Placing Photography: Reflecting on Recent Curatorial Practices

Anoushkha Prasad May 02, 2024

With conversations in the programme seeking to reflect on contemporary artistic and curation practices, the panel discussion titled Framing Photographic Practice focused on photographic images as a site of producing and preserving histories and cultures while also interrogating the impact of photography on our experiences as we navigate through the ceaseless streaming online landscape.

Leavening the Image: Reflections on Weather Report with Tenzing Dakpa

Annalisa Mansukhani Jun 21, 2024

In this edited interview, Tenzing Dakpa unpacks his process of making, his relationship to the medium of photography, and the kinds of mediations it continues to produce for him.

What Art Memes to Me: Memes and Art/Memes as Art?

Sagorika Singha Jun 26, 2024

Memes offer a mirror image of our volatile present as much as their avant-garde heritage, which can be connected to their innate subversive potential and their cultivation by the online subcultural community. These digital objects can stand in for alternative groups both in a negative as well as positive way—as new tools of solidarity for minorities and other marginalised people as well as hateful tools for the rest.

While We Watched: “Godi Media” and Ravish Kumar’s Dissent

Radhika Saraf Jun 28, 2024

Recipient of the Peabody Award 2024, Vinay Shukla’s documentary film, While We Watched (2023), is a sensitive portrayal of former NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar, amidst the rise of what Kumar labels pejoratively as “Godi Media.”

A Fragmented History: Contemporary Filmmaking in Assam

Sagorika Singha Aug 09, 2024

The last decade can be considered one of the most prolific periods in Assamese film production. Many of them are recognised and awarded for their excellence both nationally and internationally. One common factor in all of them has been their funding source, at least for their first venture. Filmmakers including Bhaskar Hazarika, Reema Borah, Kenny Basumatary and Rima Das, to name a few, all crowdfunded or self-funded their first films.

A Tripod Made of Stone: Interview with CAMP’s Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran

Shweta Kishore Aug 30, 2024

In this edited conversation with Shweta Kishore, Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran speak about the inception of CAMP as an artistic collective and their continuing focus on decentering relations of being, seeing and being seen.

To Film a City: In Conversation with Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran

Shweta Kishore Aug 31, 2024

In this continuing conversation with Shweta Kishore, Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran from the artistic collective CAMP discuss their engagement with documentary cultures, the use of soundscapes and the construction of a new kind of spectatorship.

Against Abstraction: In Conversation with Maen Hammad and Dina Salem

Kamayani Sharma Sep 05, 2024

In this edited conversation with Kamayani Sharma, Palestinian photographers Maen Hammad and Dina Salem speak about Against Abstraction, an activation they initiated with Sari Tarazi and Ahmad Alaqra at Arles from 1 July to 7 July 2024, supported by DoubleDummy Studio.

Consolidating Political Cultures: Majoritarianism in the Agrarian North

Vishal Singh Deo Sep 24, 2024

The anonymous faces that mark the jobless youth in India have now assumed a far right socio-political character as the nation’s youth have become an informal ally to the disruptive developmentalist experiments occurring in what was once the agrarian hinterland.

Muqaddimah: The War is Not Over Yet

Radhika Oct 11, 2024

In Muqaddimah (2024), Aziz Hazara underscores repetitively, through a series of contradictions, the absurdities of war—the manner in which war detritus appears as recycled technologies of violence, the fragilities of mechanisms of control and waste as imperative to global circuits of capital.

The Archive Activated: Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s The Answers Take Time

Ankita Ghosh Nov 01, 2024

Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s retrospective, The Answers Take Time, at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai from 14 September to 27 October, 2024, brought together a series of the artist’s body of work from nearly three decades of her practice. Curated by Esa Epstein, the exhibition showcased the wide range of experimental work that Matthew has dabbled with throughout her career.

In Person: Taak by Udit Khurana

Mallika Visvanathan Nov 18, 2024

In this episode of In Person, Udit Khurana speaks about his directorial vision for his film Taak (Tracker, 2024), the heightened reality that is engendered by the very presence of a camera, the effect on mental health due to the technologically determined nature of the gig economy, the invasiveness of society’s gaze upon women, the multiple cities that exist simultaneously in Delhi and the experience of screening his film at DIFF.