Peers 2016

Production, publishing and copyright Khoj International Artists’ Association www.khojworkshop.org Artist in Residence Anuradha Upadhyay Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda Arijit Bhattacharyya Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat Johnson Kshetrimayum Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda Manojit Samanta Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata Smita Rajmane Shiv Nadar University, Delhi Critic in Residence Satyajit Dave Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda Khoj Program Coordinator Promona Sengupta Design Bharath Haridas Kabini Amin Photography Suresh Pandey Artists & Critic in Residence Printed at No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above mentioned publisher of this publication.

Khoj International Artists’ Association receives support from The Norwegian Embassy

Peers 2016

An Introduction to the Peers residency Program The 14th edition of the Peers Residency, held between May and June 2016 broke fresh ground for a set of ebullient young artists on the precipice of the onset of their professional trajectory. In the span of a month, transitions in practice emerged; old forms now reviewed, were released in favour of the new.

Peers has been a one of Khoj’s pioneering programmes. It is a unique residency model, closely curated for recent graduates and young artists starting their professional careers. Khoj also provides a platform for young art practitioners who have not been trained in art schools and colleges. The selection process for Peers is through an Open Call followed by final selections by an invited jury of artists and curators. The Peers residency is populated with artists’ visits and interactions, studio visits and curated exhibition walkthroughs, for the residents to have a gamut of art-related experiences and exposure.

The residency also invites a senior artist in the role of a mentor, to discuss with and give feedback to the young artists in residence. The aim of the Peers programme is to provide infrastructure, inspiration and mentorship to emerging artists and art practices.

The Peers 2016 Residency was characterised by a slew of mentorship opportunities and studio visits that significantly shaped the practices of the artists and critic in residence in the span of one month. Vibha Galhotra was invited to be a residency mentor, giving constant feedback and ideas to the young aritsts. Some of the other visits and talks included studio visits with Asim Waqif and Gigi Sicaria, and an exciting presentation by the artist, Tushar Joag.

These interactions set the stage for subtle changes and broke ground for the Peers’ emerging artistic practice, the product of which was evident on the night of the Open Day. The residency concluded with Peers Share, a two-day seminar consisting of 10 finalists from the Peers selections presenting their work to a panel of senior practitioners to discuss and receive feedback on the same. The program gave rise to many questions, collaborations and discussions among the invited artists.

Satyajit Dave Critic-in-Residence, Peers 2016 Satyajit Dave completed his M.V.A and B.V.A in Art History and Aesthetics from Maharaja Sayajirao University Vadodara in 2016 and 2014 respectively. His projects include 41 street, Gufa, Raaga Kala Art Gallery, 2013, Ahmedabad; The Rasa’s of few Narcissists, Contemporary Art Gallery, Ahmedabad, 2014; “SENSES”, Vincent Gallery of Arts, Ahmedabad, 2014; #khanekedeewane, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, 2016.

He was also a full time curator at the CHHAAP Foundation, Vadodara and a part of the curatorial team of the Contemporary Indian Art show, which was a part of the VadFest 2015.

The PEERS Students Residency is one of the most sought after programs for Art graduates across the country. Applicants are attracted by the prospect of meeting individuals from various art schools across the country with eccentric interests and ideologies that were non-conforming to established practices is what attracts applicants. This array of ideologies and practices opens up a space for healthy and heated dialogue - an environment that forces one to re-look at their own practice. Moreover, living and working closely with each other for about a month helps one build long-term relationships with one’s peers. The structure of the residency program is also quite interesting as its short duration puts a certain pressure on participants to perform, opening up possibilities for adaptation and experimentation.

I was not unfamiliar to the residents who were a part of this year’s program.

Most of us knew each other’ practice through mutual friends and via social media. However, living and working with each other in close proximity proved insightful. We also shared a few common ideas, which dominated our idealistic and realistic discussions around social issues and collectively contemplate on them, further in the course of the residency. Instead of taking notes during discussions, I maintained a daily diary, which helped me understand the Artist more intimately. This left me with no other option but to recall and write, leading to a further analysis of each conversation.

Khirkee as a space itself is quite over-whelming - a cultural melting pot, it engulfs the viewer through its hybridity. The daily trips to Khirkee village inspired us to work top involve the community and its aspects in our work.

Visiting Masterji’s house made for one of the most interesting couple of hours of the residency; we were made witness to certain oral histories, which have otherwise remained undocumented so far. During our conversation, we realized that there seems to be no beginning or end to the age-old battle, Kila hai ya Masjid (is it a fort or a Mosque), being fought on the historical grounds of the Khirkee Masjid. Khirkee moreover has a history with migrant population since the partition days, which is quite important in understanding the contemporary socio-cultural conditions.

There have been a significant series of discourses on the practice and process in art, the fact of which is only understood clearly by being in a studio space.

For young practitioners fresh out of college, it is very important to understand these aspects and not just focus on the ‘final’ work of art. Visiting studios of artists such as Gigi Scaria and Asim Waqif and having Tushar Joag come down to Khoj to give a presentation, provided insight into the manner in which the artist looks at and formulates practice and process. These studio visits proved very helpful for the residents, especially for Johnson Kshetrimayum and Arijit Bhattacharyya, whose works are very process based.

Johnson Kshetrimayum Johnson Kshetrimayum is a resident of Manipur. He completed his M.V.A and B.V.A in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Art, Maharaja Sayajirao University Vadodara in 2016 and 2014 respectively. He has been a part of Teaser, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, 2016 and THUMBNAILS, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara, 2014.

Through his practice Johnson tries to depict issues that affect public life in the state of Manipur. Having grown up hearing the heroic stories of the battles between the insurgents and the police and Kshetrimayum once dreamed of following their footsteps. However, as time passed, he realized that most of these stories were just rumors. There was a time he heard gunshots daily -- bullets hitting the walls, dropping on the roof as insurgents passed by, but with fake encounters becoming the norm, the power of AFSPA changed even the calmest of people into an aggressive person. When people are suffering and crying for our lost ones, an artist’s work becomes a record of the lives affected; drawing from Roy Lichtenstein and the style of the graphic novel, of late, Johnson Kshetrimayum has been using different materials to build upon his exploration of diverse subject matter that negotiates cultural identity, fraternity and more specifically, the trauma of living in a state of perpetual insurgency.

Johnson a native of Imphal in Manipur completed his B.V.A and M.V.A in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University in Vadodara. His practice is informed by his first hand experiences of the socio-political conditions as experienced by the common people of Manipur. Kshetrimayum and I were batch-mates at Vadodara. I was well aware of his work and its development over the years. Therefore, the task for me was the peel through the layers that I already knew. I asked him a couple of questions like, “Can an artist ever get detached from their work?”,“Can an artist ever detach the self from the experience of the self?” He responded with an immediate and straight “No”. The immediacy of his response made me realize his propinquity to his subjectivity through personal experiences. One of his early works that I remember was an Untitled from his Under-graduate years. The work showed young kids surrounded by bullets and violence and how the insurgents influence young innocent minds through their ‘heroic’ tales. The kids start using props like tree branches as guns and start imagining themselves in various revolutionary roles.

However, as they start experiencing the world, they soon realize the noise and take to different professions. The sound of gunshots, bullets hitting the walls, dropping on roof and the insurgent passing was a common sight for him growing up. His propinquity to these situations and hurdles transfers into his art practice. His visual language borrows from graphic novel genres and from that of the pop artist Roy Lichtenstein. His graphic narration of the stories lend a sense of ‘Fictional Reality’.

The movement and animated quality draws the viewer in, for a closer inspection. It’s intriguing how the quality of his work stimulates the mind of the viewer with its formal quality and then confronts them with its subjectivity. His fractured narrative within his larger body of work is born out of the fragmented socio-political conditions in Manipur and operates on multiple levels within this setting. It is almost impossible to pinpoint his present preoccupation. He also addresses the cultural fabric of his state where women empowerment and progressive approaches dwell within anti-chauvinism. His visual language is apt as it has a mass accessibility. However, one of the key criticism that I had for his earlier works was the lack of experimentation.

During the residency at Khoj he created an installation titled “DO I NOT LOOK INDIAN?” and a graffiti “I’M NOT CHINKI! I AM INDIAN!.” These were a clear break from the documentary aspect of his work. They question and jostle the epistemological understanding of freedom. The graffiti managed to pass a strong message about racism and discrimination against people from the Northeast to a wider audience due to its multi-locational quality and quantity.

However, I felt the work “DO I NOT LOOK INDIAN?” had its shortcomings.

Even though Johnson successfully managed to break away from the documentary quality, he could not quite break away (at some points) from his formal approach and understanding of the ‘picture-plane’. He deconstructed through the lens of racism, marginalization and negligence. Even though a large part of his partisanship comes from his first-hand experience and understanding, it percolates as a universal temperament through his visual expressions. The directness, which is vastly confrontational, lacks insight into his ‘Process,’ which is one of the most important aspects of his work.

Arijit Bhattacharyya Arijit Bhattacharyya recently graduated from Surat School of Fine Arts from the Department of Painting. He was also a part of all India students’ workshop in C.A.V.A Mysore. He is the recipient of grants from the Indian Chinese Association and the Humdasti Foundation for Community Art at the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival in Kolkata in 2015. He was a participant of Kolkata International Performance Art Festival in 2015. Most notably, his work has been showcased as part of Enquiry- An exhibition of eight fresh minds (Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, 2015), The Vibrant Gujarat Exhibition (Faculty of Fine Arts M.S.U Baroda, 2014), and Niv Saturday the Last (Niv Artist Centre, Delhi, 2013).

With an interest in the functional solutions for shelter and housing proposed by design, Bhattacharyya’s practice revolves around the problems posed by urbanism, commercial development, and the migration of labour and resources taking place within the country.

Bhattacharyya was most recently awarded the ‘Jagdeep Smart’ Scholarship by the Department of Painting at the Surat School of Fine Arts in 2016.

Arijit on the other hand manages to succeed in terms of letting the viewer access his process. His works move beyond notions about art and enter the space of urban design and development. I believe that in the discourses on art functionality is not a commonly used term. He approaches ‘object making’ as a practice from a design point of view. One of the most interesting aspects of his practice is the way in which he carries out community interactions before introducing his designs and objects to them. His works are highly functional and are made to be used by communities living in tough conditions.

Arijit graduated from the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University in Surat and hails from a small city near Kolkata. His shift to Surat, a budding metropolis in Gujarat was a seminal turning point to his life and practice.

He was both amazed and distressed looking at the mechanical construction activities in the suburbs of Surat. He observed the increasing labor structures and technologies that came up in the context of development and making space for urban utilization. His early works are a series of photographs around construction sites titled Presence where Arijit visited these sites and attempted to become a part of the construction. He is in the nude in most of these pictures, which depict the loss of identity and insignificance of its maker. The work deconstructs notions around labor and the maker-user relationship through ideas of decay, rupture and stifling. There is a strong sense of disdain towards this mechanical reproduction, which is born out of consumerist greed. These works laid the foundation for his later practice.

Looking at his body of work, I realized that he had somewhere subconsciously developed a disdain for art and not just painting (something, which we discussed at length). This is the reason that his ‘Practice’ borrowed heavily from and had affinities with the process of a design professional or an urban planner. The role of an artist as that of a ‘Cultural-Thinker’ is absent in his functional objects. During the residency he worked on “what if…” wherein he manages to challenge his beliefs.

The issues of race, gender, inequality and marginalization percolate his process, ultimately finding parallels in his ‘work’. The ideological framework from which the work was shaped echoes the role of the “Artist as a Cultural Thinker”. I feel “what if...” is a foundation for his future practice. The work formally was a riot of expressions and experiences in many ways. Arijit’s space resonated the idea of an Open Studio and introduced the viewer to the idea of an artist’s “Practice” and “Process.”

Smita Rajmane Smita Rajmane completed her M.F.A from Shiv Nadar University in 2016 and obtained B.F.A from Bharti Vidhyapeeth in 2011. Rajmane has participated in a number of exhibitions at the Lalit Kala Academy in Chennai and Lucknow, and has been a part of group exhibitions such as Regional Rethinking (Mumbai, 2015), The Indo-German Urban Mela (Pune, 2013), Pune Biennale (Pune, 2013) and The Monsoon Show at the Jehangir Art Gallery (Mumbai, 2013).

Rajmane’s is interested in the relationship between lived experience and the self; major themes addressed in her work include surveillance, the male gaze and voyeurism. Following the cataclysmic Dadri mob lynching of 2015, Rajmane, as a former student of the Dadri-based Shiv Nadar University, has now begun to look at the relationship between safety and the spatial and social politics of differentiation, reflecting on the tragic dichotomy posed by the university walls that turn the local population into outsiders on their own land.

Smita’s display on the other hand was very crisp and neat. She used her studio and the Khoj building to display her work. Titled “15 meters?” her work ponders on the idea of distance both literally and metaphorically. Previously Smita has juggled with diverse mediums to create interactive installation pieces, which re-create an atmosphere inspired by her personal experiences.

Her works are confrontational and let out a subtle scream highlighting issues of gender, sexuality, violence, gaze, voyeurism and ecological ‘consumer-ship’.

Smita’s work forces one to discover the hidden and suppressed aggression that exists within oneself and negotiates with it.

She says, “My work is a comment on the veiled truth that is constantly hidden in an ideal, utopian society that is seen by everyone yet ignored and is never spoken of because of the consequences one might face in society.” She coins the term ‘Truth Drug’.

Smita completed her post-graduate studies from Shiv Nadar University in Visual Arts. One sees an affinity to the conceptual leanings of Hassan Elahi and Lynn Harshman in her work. Having completed her undergraduate studies from a more conservative pedagogic space, the freedoms she enjoyed during Master’s program gave her the space to explore multiple possibilities, both formally and conceptually.

Works like ‘Peep Show’, ‘Forced Conjugate Deviation’ and ‘You are always an outsider’ stand as testaments to her evolving practice. One also recognizes

a certain poetic texture in these works. ‘Forced Conjugate Deviation’ talks about ideas of gaze, violence, voyeurism, gender and discomfort. The work recreates the gaze and the inability of the viewer to move away from the gaze.

The work is a result of Smita’s personal experiences.

‘You are always an outsider,’ in my opinion is one of Smita’s most striking works. The work formulates its own poetics to shed light on complex issues such as migration, dislocation, fear, anxiety and dissent amongst others. The work uses motors to move the walls and sensors to activate the motor. When a person enters the room, the walls immediately shift, opening up multiple exit points and four inaccessible rooms. The work was a result of her own experience with migration, dislocation and the feeling of being an outsider.

“I am an outsider in this site however, the walls shield me and make me an insider and the original insiders have turned into outsiders in their own land.

The walls take on the role of machines that create hierarchies among the people.”

Smita’s practice oscillates between being loud and subtle in its impact. It does not operate in the form, but the impact that the meaning-making has on the viewer’s mind through the form. “15 meters?” was extremely loud in terms of its conceptual density and complexity. Formally, it was a very different story. Old walls and new houses, attempts at appropriation, encroachment, conversations about disturbance, claustrophobia, denial and clutter charge the works. There is a sense of poetics to how the work operates. The formal minimalism of the work plays hide-n-seek with the highly socio-political conceptual jostling. Smita negotiates the spaces of identity through the ideas of distance, disturbance and the feeling of being over-powered. “15 meteres?” hence questions and confronts the way in which we perceive distance through its notional readings. Taking a historical monument as a significant strategic “Object,” Smita chose to use it subtly but with strong strategy. However, certain ruptures with respect to the poetics of this work were visible in my opinion. Since the physical formulation occurred due to a certain process based approach, I thought it was of utmost importance to bring to light the process of ‘measuring’ the distance.

Manojit Samanta Manojit Samanta obtained his M.V.A. from Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata in 2014 and his B.F.A from the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship in 2012. His work has been exhibited at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), Delhi, 2013; Rabindra Bharti State Academy, Kolkata, 2014 and 2015; Emami Chisel, Kolkata, 2014 and 2016; Video Art Exhibition, Emami Chisel, Kolkata, 2016 and the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata in 2016.

Samanta’s work is a commentary on sexuality, society and politics, and illustrates conversations heard between the seats on public transportation in Kolkata. A professional cartoonist and illustrator, his daily railway trips from between home and his office in the heart of the city exposed him to, in the words of the Peers criticin-residence, Satyajit Dave, ‘heavy junk, pressure and extremely crowded situations’, which has in turn exerted tremendous influence on his latest assemblages and compositions, giving them what is now their characteristic jumbled and tacked on appearance.

Manojit’s visual language is raw, rambunctious and stimulating. His work Fragments in Flux aims to do exactly what a mainstream popular Bollywood aims to do - Entertain! The difference here is that the work does so with wit.

Samanta’ entertainment oscillates between being visceral and meditated and operates exactly within these antagonisms.

Manojit completed his bachelors from the Indian College of Art and Draftsmanship. His works from these days carry a strong adherence to ‘academic’ practice. One of his early works ‘Cocktail’, reaches new heights of sensual exploration, which is imbedded in the ideas of consumption and exploitation. He deconstructs the seemingly banal and infuses it with satire and allegorical references, which he draws heavily from his bourgeois background. His interest always was to subvert notions of certain culture, class and gender specific practices. He pursued his Post-graduate studies from the Government College of Art and Craft at Kolkata. This triggered a

need for change in his practice and he moved away from oils from a while.

He began to look towards more unconventional mediums human hair for instance. Another work that I must mention is “Narrow Pockets”, one finds images of Rodin’s Thinker, Da Vinci’s Monalisa (works considered to be the epitome of artistic achievement) alongside poster of the movie Rambo where the image of Rambo is replaced with that of Goddess Kali. Within the same painting one witness’s posters of popular consumer products like Hajmola, Chutki Pan-Masala, etc. The very specific choice of posters of these products references a post consumption refreshment. The choice of images resonates with the camp culture of the chawls on one hand and from his art background on the other. Some his other works are titled after famous Bollywood movies like HIMMATWALA and BAAZIGAR. These titles have little to do with the movie itself except for the typography. The titles are used to depict certain practices imbibed in our cultural fabric. The work titles act as a satirical comment on those socio-cultural practices.

His work as a cartoonist at one of the illustration companies at Kolkata has also immensely influenced his art practice. The everyday routine train trips to office and back exposed him to frustrating and extremely crowded situations. The work titled ‘MyriadColourz’ portrays the day-to-day train conversations where the topics range from psychology, sex, social and political issues and various related popularly debated topics. Much like his canvases, one sees micro-narrations here. However, unlike his canvases, clustering is done with the helping of cutting and pasting each narrative together giving a sense of relief work. He uses carton board as his surface.

The usage of the carton board lends a specific transient sentimentality to the work.

Looking at his body of work one sees a wide range that he has explored.

His command over various techniques is impressive. During the residency Manojit worked on “FRAGMENTS IN FLUX”, wherein he builds a narrative similar to Myriadcolourz. The work is built taking inspiration from Khrikee village and its surroundings. It operates within the social, cultural and architectural ironies of Khirkee and manages to deconstruct the popular notions around the area to some extent. The iconography in the work reflects, re-interprets and consolidates the impact of modernity (in terms of western idealization) in and around the space. The visuals aim to idealize and question ways of perception. Manojit builds a narrative, which is in a continuous state of flux. In my opinion, the work had its shortcomings in terms of material and mediums.

Anuradha Upadhyay Anuradha Upadhyay graduated with a specialization in graphics from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda in 2015. Her practice is diverse, and spans across painting, printmaking, photography and has most recently been marked by a distinct turn in the direction of the performative. Upadhyay has been a part of international artists residencies and exchanges, including the BBK Galley Printmaking Residency in Wurzberg, Germany, Sipana Project Residency and the Kochi Biennale Foundation Kashi Art Residency; she has shown at various group exhibitions in India and abroad, and was most recently a part of Formation One (2016) in Baroda, Gujarat and Forms of Devotion (2015) at the Museum of Sacred Art in Belgium and Italy.

Anuradha Upadhyay’s socially and politically charged work confronts the issues surrounding femininity, gaze and violence against women.

Where Manojit’s work fell short, there Anuradha’s work flowed in excess. Her work “Aankhe teri galiyon mein bazaar hai” was emotional and engaging. Upadhyay’s work investigates the changing notions of the ‘feminine’ within and outside the discourse of feminist ideology in its socio-political setting; it contemplates the duality of the human psyche and is governed by an ‘Experiential Reality’.

Having completed her B.V.A and M.V.A from the M.S. University in painting and graphic respectively; she works in multiple Medias and the ‘Body’ is an integral medium to her. It is through its exploration that her work begins to open up to various social, economic and political facets of the human psyche and its prevalent duality. It is here in these intermingling notions that one sees an exploration of the changing notions of ‘feminine’. She says, “Women and “others” have always been held under the umbrella of a cultural valuing system and patriarchy which I cannot ignore. The selfexperiences of helplessness, pain and violence, allows me to become aware of gender differences in this country and the monotony of day to day life; layered in so many illusions by relation, perceptions, marriages, virtue, religion and the society.”

In ‘Woman with questions’ she grapples with the issues and concerns that woman face, the boundaries forced onto them and their subjection to cultural and traditional rigidity. These almost act as walls around them.

The work borrows largely from personal experience and it further tries to open up the idea of representation within the discourses on feminism.

Another interesting work, which opens up debates on the idea of feminine is ‘Silent Conversation’. The work talks about the notion of gaze, nurturing, nourishment, fertility and identity. At one hand, it operates within the realm of fertility associations and on the other; it refers to the idea of a nude female body being visually consumed.

“When I think, it is of course about the self as a woman that very often becomes the significant character of my visuals – another me, with me.

Exploring the concept of duality within and in everything, it is like playing with the reality. I always see myself dealing with conflicts and problems that mostly I understand exists in me as well in the outer world. These kinds of struggles between the false and the truth makes me believe in duality and contradictions. With this awareness of having the solution by becoming one with both the extremes and accepting it as it is. I also try to see it separately.

As an artist, I am keen to respond because I feel responsible towards what surrounds me and so there are genuine concerns and efforts to express these contradictions to create at least some vocabulary through my perspective as an artist, as a person.”

Upadhyay’s work Aankhe teri galion mein bazaar hai, which she produced at Khoj during the residency is a take on the conditions and the resultant behavior of the migrant labour population at Khirkee. Through the work, she delves deeper into the issues of gaze and a violent visual consumption. She made a number of masks with various facial designs resembling a horrific look. These masks hung from the ceiling gave more impact to the concept of gaze, domestic violence, and a certain violent visual consumption. Her performance at Khoj on the residency’s Open Day resonated with the issue female oppression and suppression. She used the tradition of a newlywed bride making the impression of her palm with red colour on the wall of her husband’s house as a reference point for the performance, starting with impressions made at the bottom of the wall, gradually moving upwards. On the other hand, one followed her as she moved from the bottom to the top, she gradually starts opening her hands symbolizing the female struggle and position to demand her rights. She uses the wall as a means of showing the society that pushes a woman, not letting her break free. The performance and the visual created on the wall through the performance formed a perfect balance with the masks. However, some of the designs on the masks felt a little out of place. The rendering of multiple eyes, the vibrancy in colour in some of the masks felt a little out of place.

Open day 2016