For three curatorial residencies, an art writing workshop and an international seminar addressing critical issues of curating Indian art in a global context. These projects will facilitate the development of a model for practice-based curatorial training and encourage cross-cultural dialogue on curating practices.
For mapping exhibition policy in India during the twentieth century; documenting select curatorial experiences over the last decade; and analysing the evolving relationship between curatorial practice and public culture. The research processes and outcomes will be captured in an illustrated report. This will be followed by meetings between representatives of museums, art institutions and relevant government ministries, and independent curators, artists and critics towards the preparation and distribution of advocacy materials and a policy-oriented document.
For a series of five workshops across the country, followed by a colloquium, to conceptualise and design an academic curriculum for curatorial studies. The workshops will be held in smaller towns and cities to ensure that the proposed curriculum accommodates regional discourses, issues and concerns.
For the creation of a solo performance based Shurpanakha in the Ramayana, incorporating different readings of this enigmatic character—as a shape shifting raksashi, a beautiful woman, and a victim of patriarchal norms—found in various versions of the epic. The performance will include new songs in Braj, a local dialect of Hindi and create a movement vocabulary extending beyond the traditional repertoire of Kathak.
For the ALTlab residency programme, which encourages photographers to experiment with alternative photography processes and materials. Four photographers concerned with form-based experimentation will come together for two months at the laboratory of the Goa Centre for Alternative Photography. Their image experiments will be exhibited at the end of the residency.
For three workshops to train young film enthusiasts and film and arts students in the theory and practice of film curation, each culminating in a film festival featuring curatorial packages developed by selected workshop participants. A reference library of film and books will be also created, and a website will offer access to the information and ideas generated at the workshops and festivals.
For research on the history of Bengali Cartoons starting from the late nineteenth century to post-Independence India. The resulting book will examine the development of cartoons from a discursive art form in early publications to a space for critical discourse on colonial domination, self- representation, and the process of modernisation.
For research leading to a travelogue on the songs performed during Muharram in various districts of West Bengal. The Muharram songs will be viewed as a part of a performative tradition that interprets and internalises the history of the Shia community. The recorded interviews and the songs will be documented as an audio-visual archive.
For research into the Drupad tradition and its transmission within the Dagar gharana. They study will examine how notions of tradition, authenticity and the gharan are constructed through the processes of teaching and learning at the Dagar gurukul in Panvel. The project will result in a monograph and audio-visual documentation.
For the production of a film investigating the influence of politics and religion post-Partition evolution of classical dance forms like Kathak, Bharatnatyam and Odissi in Pakistan. The film will portray how Pakistani classical dancers have endured despite state censorship and the absence of critical audiences and institutional support, and how they have been received by their Indian counterparts.
For a film and photo-documentation of the murals in the Guru Ram Rai Durbar in Dehradun. The film will examine the relationship between the murals and their diverse viewers—the keepers in the shrine, art historians, restorers and worshippers—and explore how this rich repository of images reveals a history of power politics, syncretic religious practices of pre-colonial India and separate painting styles between the seventeenth and nineteenth century.
For research into the role of family tradition in the Indian miniature painting in the post-colonial period. The researcher will examine the royal collection of the Mewar court in the City Palace Museum in Udaipur, which has paintings from the seventeenth century to the present, and analyse the impact that changing patterns of patronage, the closure of the karkhana (guild) and the demands of the market have had on the families that have been painting miniatures for several generations. The project will result in an exhibition and a series of essays.
For research towards a book on Clearing House, a publishing collective started by four poets in Bombay in the mid 1970s. The book will also look at the emergence of Bombay’s small press movement and the city’s cultural and political ambiance during that period. The primary source for the book will be the archive of poet Adil Jussawala, the first publisher of Clearing House, which consists of hundreds of letters exchanged between the poets of the collective, reviews of the books they published and their responses to these reviews, among other material.
For research towards a book on the production, distribution and design aesthetics of pamphlets and little magazines produced and sold from Battala and College Street in Kolkata. The researcher will analyse the distribution of these printed materials and how this is linked to the social class of the creator/designer as well as the intended viewer or consumer. A designer’s sensibility will inform the resulting book, which will contain photographs of the little magazines and pamphlets and of the printing presses and materials.
For a two-day conference bringing together archivists, scholars, collectors and artists to examine the role of the archive in shaping the history of early Tamil cinema. The publication of the papers presented at the conference, along with an exhaustive filmography of Tamil films from 1930, will serve as a basic reference for further research.
