Five young artists stress on the role of experimentation and risk-taking in art through their unconventional works prepared during a month-long residency at Khoj Studios. One of the artists, Parag Sonargarhe, will introduce performance arts
Mostly art residencies are an interactive platform for artists who get inspired by their peers and surroundings and come up with something that describes their beliefs and ideas in a nutshell. This month–long residency at the Khoj Studios was different as it aimed at getting out–of–the–box ideas and presentation media from the artists. Out of the five participating artists, one (Niyati Upadhya) scanned the lanes of the Shadipur Depot capturing the life of singers, puppeteers and magicians who earn their livelihood by performing on streets. Parag Sonargarhe confined himself to the boundaries of a room to interact with the aata or the wheat flour. Pratik Bhattacharya thought of different mediums to encourage people to interact with his artwork. Juhikadevi Bhanjdeo used objects like ribbons and razor blades to create a beautiful pattern. Ribbons and razor blades represent gender in our society. This is the tenth edition of the Peers Residency which is an annual education and outreach residency programme that brings together five recent graduates from art institutions from all over India. For four weeks, these young artists shed the expectations and rigidity of a structured curriculum, working together in a discursive space that stresses the role of free experimentation and risk-taking in art practice. The artists will interact with the public tomorrow that is the Open Studio Day.
The Open Studio Day will highlight interesting ideas five artists have worked on. They do not follow the conservative method of painting, sculpting or even recording and then presenting an idea through video streaming. Take for example Parag Sonargarhe, he works on something that he calls a performance art. “It is free form of expression where I let my physical self explore the object and I engage myself in the dialogue with the object. While I was a part of residency for over ten days I was in a room and let the aata, the object of my work, be all over me. I got the videos clicked and the pictures that will be displayed on the Open Studio Day to give the viewers the context. But I will be doing something more than that infront of the people to make them understand the concept of performing art. It is not a dramatic representation, it is only a body in contact with the object,” he explained. “I see the whole performance as a conversation about my offerings in terms of sweat, touch and me being physically there with and for the aata,” he added.
To make his artwork more interactive Pratik will be using three blackboards and chalks. The artist will invite the viewers to express their views openly. “The title of my work is Presence of Absence. It is a mixed media installation. The work is not just a result of my interaction with the Khoj space, but also influenced by the interaction between different social layers. It talks about democracy politics and different groups that exist in our society. I have decided to use live video streaming of the street outside in the studio space and video streaming of the happenings inside the studio on the street outside to create the sense of time warp,” shared Pratik, who came from Shantiniketan to be a part of the residency. Juhikadevi started perceiving human behaviors as ‘pockets’. “A ‘pocket’ is an embodiment of socio-economic status, religion, caste and creed.
The way we perceive others can be a ‘pocket’. Our religious beliefs are also like ‘pockets’. We may term each religion as a pocket of the God. I also realised that each human being is represented by the objects she/he used in day to day life. Or the objects represent different and unique human beings. I dealt with human behaviour as ‘pockets’. I keep questioning myself, how the people peep into other pocket no matter what they have in theirsIJ How people’s pockets pops up differently to different peopleIJ How do people with different shapes and volumes of pockets live together in the societyIJ Why do people, in the name of God’s pocket, kill or blame each otherIJ
There are so many pockets to be answered. Thus, my works are dominated by representations of different ‘pockets’ with many common objects in, on and around. As I progressed in my studies, the literal pockets took shape of different forms. However, the objects remained constant. My recent work is an attempt at making a statement using different objects like ribbons and razor blades,” she stated. Sashi Thavudoz’s installation is a construction of different packaging materials that have been made into the cubical framework of building. Smaller units have been pulled together to construct a larger structure, to share how a small city grows into an urban metropolis. The final installation will comprise of different packaging structures.