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City as Studio 02
The City as Studio initiative will create contexts for high intensity inter-disciplinary processes at different locations in Delhi and at the Sarai space at CSDS. Sometimes these process(es) may be rendered as an exhibition, at other times as a gathering, as a library, as a temporary archive or as an occasion for performances, conversations and debates. The studio process plans to bring together artists, filmmakers, photographers, discursive interlocutors, architects, writers, urbanists, scientists, architects, social actors and cultural workers, neighbourhood initiatives and diverse audiences to create art works, participatory performances, media works, and transmissions of different kinds of signals.
Associate Fellows for City as Studio 2 (2011-12)
1. Agat Sharma/ agatsharm at gmail dot com
Agat is a designer based in Jaipur. He has done his Master's in Communication Design from NIFT, Delhi. He is is interested in reiterating design as a more inclusive interdisciplinary practice that is critical and responsive.
His explorations for the Studio will entail a response to the particular modernity of Delhi Metro.
2. Anirban Gupta-Nigam/ revdwickscherrycoke at gmail dot com
Anirban is a research student at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU.
Anirban wishes to experiment with the world as installation or museum space, revisiting governmentality by viewing the act of curating space, of arranging objects in relation to human beings, as part of a series of aesthetic-design choices made in the realm of what is usually called ‘the political’. His work is tentatively titled Curatorial Governmentality.
3. Asim Waqif/ asim dot waqif at gmail dot com
Asim is an artist and architect based in Delhi, where he currently teaches at the School of Planning and Architecture. He has worked as an art director for film and television and has done independent videos and documentaries before moving into a dedicated art space.
His work for the Studio, Invisible Urbanity, will seek to look at derelict spaces, which can be interesting spaces for those who do not fit into the formal Masterplan of the City.
4. Dyuti Mittal/ dyuti dot mittal at gmail dot com
Dyuti is based in Delhi and is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Her area of interest lies in visual/sequential narration, information design and illustration. She has worked on a self-initiated graphic novel/artist book, called Flaw.
Her exploration in the Studio, titled The Paused City, will seek to look at the city as though she has never seen it before, and re-vision this strange place with new eyes.
5. Gowhar Yaqoob/ gowharjacob at yahoomail dot co dot in
Gowhar is a post-doctoral fellow at the Centrre for Historical Studies, JNU, and is interested in the interface between history and literature, translations, creative writing, photography and visual art.
Gowhar’s work, tentatively titled Tri-Pitch: City-Me-Space Portraits of a City: Interpretation of Life as Time, will seek to experiment with the photographic representation of the city (space), to evolve a dialogue between the visual and the textual, and understand the ways in which the individual comes to gain urban experience in today’s urbanity.
6. Pratik Sagar/ pratiksagar at rediffmail dot com
Pratik lives and works in Baroda, and has done his MFA from College of Arts, Delhi.
He wishes to work on what he has titled Unpacking Social Networks, in which he will investigate faith as a potential tool for environmental health. During this project, he would like to create a space with edible contents, to attract living organisms to interact with it. He wishes to see the city as composed of more than the human subject, by bringing into his practice the space of other organic beings, and work through films, small sculptures and space-based instlallations.
7. Rashmi Munikempanna / rashmi at rashmimunikempanna dot com
Rashmi has worked with various art forms such as theatre, film and photography, exploring and interrogating ways of addressing identity, especially around gender, sexuality and language.
Her work during the Fellowship will explore and intervene in the city basing herself within the space of gender. She is interested in leaving texts, images, objects, in spaces that are used only by women, such as women's toilets, changing rooms, hostels, etc.
8. Sujit Mallick/ surcas at gmail dot com
Sajit is based in Delhi and has done his Bachelor's in Fine Arts from Bhubaneshwar, Orissa.
Living in the outskirts of Delhi, he worked with the fictional character of kachra seth, who roams in the kachra of the city, looking for traces. He wishes to extend this narrative and take kachra seth's performances to places like Badarpur border, Najafgarh, Dhasa border and Kapasera border.
9. Tanya Goel/ tanyagoel01 at gmail dot com
Tanya is based in Delhi, and has done her MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University School of Art, USA. Her interests are in figuring out a (non) system that opens up the act of making and seeing painting in today’s time.
Her work for the Studio, tentatively titled Locating Empty [Spaces] will attempt to locate a space that can be visually identified as empty, challenging out own perception of what can or cannot be identified as empty spaces.
10. Ujjwal Utkarsh/ ujjwal dot utkarsh at gmail dot com
Ujjwal is a film-maker based in Bellary, Karnataka.
He wishes to make a series of short films to capture the oscillation between aloneness and belonging, home and homelessness, in certain portions of cities which are always in flux. He wishes to look at these spaces as homes, exploring the temporal-spatial connections in the ‘city’.
Visiting Fellows
Gitanjali Dang is an independent curator-critic based out of Bombay. Her current interests include the ontologies of art and technology; these she intersects regularly with post-Duchampian humour and caprice. She has curated several exhibitions, including the net art endeavour Beam Me Up _ Project India, and has contributed to local and international publications. Her work for the studio residency will involve flash happenings.
Thomas Crowley is a researcher at the Delhi-based NGO Intercultural Resources. He is currently exploring the history and the current status of the Delhi Ridge forest. He also leads bicycle tours in historic parts of the city. Thomas first came to India from the U.S. in 2008. He has since researched and written on a variety of topics, including Ganesh Chaturthi, Sant Tukaram and Maggi noodles. Thomas enjoys making digital and analog music, and creating interactive performance environments with the software Max/MSP, and his work for the Studio will involve games in the Delhi Ridge.
Vishwajyoti Ghosh is a graphic novelist and cartoonist based in New Delhi. He is the author of the graphic novel 'Delhi Calm' and also author of the cartoon column 'Full Toss' that appears in Hindustan Times Edit Page, every Sunday. He is currently working on a mapping project in the workers’ clusters of Gurgaon, titled WORKERS WANTED which will be his project with City As Studio. He seeks to explore other mediums like photography, spaces like site specific mini exhibitions or installations and extend his practice not only through mediums but also narratives.
Rapporteur and Editor
Jyoti Dhar is an independent art critic and curator who currently lives in Delhi. She spent her formative years in England before moving to Dubai. Curatorial projects include several initiatives as the curator for the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) as well as In Decay, Ralf Ziervogel's solo exhibition at Carbon 12 gallery. She regularly contributes to publications such as Modern Painters, Art Asia Pacific, Contemporary Practices and Flash Art, and was most recently critic-in-residence for KHOJ's residency on Art, Science and Ecology.
Vivek Narayanan, Inder Salim, Solomon Benjamin and the Raqs Media Collective are the mentors of the City as Studio Programme .