From Mandi Steward to Oishika Sen 'Hope Horizon'
From Mandi Stewart to Oishika Sen 'Magic Stone'
Oishika Sen
Watch a horror film or an episode of a TV/web series that you know will scare you. Measure and record your heart rate throughout the movie/episode (using a monitor, app, manually, whatever you’ve got).
Good luck!
From Oishika Sen to Mani Stewart
From Poojitha Lara to Sara Varady
From Sara Varady to Poojitha Lara
From Ira Sinha to Jianze Zhao
From Jianze Zhao to Ira Sinha
Ideas travel faster than light
-Tanisha Lamichhane
All the structures in the objective world comprise of a certain shape. We often notice the objectivity of these shapes, but cease to recognize the subjective element that these shapes bring to a structure. The intact structure and shape of objects are taken for granted- we have internalized them as we observe them in our day to day lives.
It is said that these shapes have psychological connotations- a square brings rigidity, a circle brings softness and a triangle brings direction. There are many other unconventional shapes, that could be interpreted differently. When this intact shape and structure is distorted or undermined, it gives a completely new meaning to ordinary subjects. These ideas have been explored by artists practicing cubism and surrealism.
For this project, you are required to make a self-portrait. Notice what kind of shapes constitute your facial and anatomical structure and how many of these do we take for granted. Give a new meaning to yourself by playing with the objectivity and intactness of these shapes. For instance, what if abstract lines were portrayed as rigid and intact shapes were disregarded? You are free to interpret the meanings and subjectivity of shapes and undermine them according to your own imagination. You are also free to use any medium or material you like, as long as it is two-dimensional. (It can be a painting, collage, photography, mixed medium, and many more)
From Tanisha Lamichhane to Wei Wang
From Emillie Meyn to Nikhita Thavannoor
Each of the fragments were taken from poems, from different contexts with the same basic emotion that runs through them: the incredibly human need for love. We yearn for connection
with others, for a way to express our affection, and poetry is a medium that is often used as a way to get these thoughts out. There are those pessimistic takes, on how love is ruinous and a treacherous thing, and there are those who see love in daily mundanities. They all, however, choose love in the end, regardless of how doomed it is, and that is incredibly intriguing and what it truly is to be human. The concept boils down to a meditation on love and what it means and what it could be.
From Niikhita Thevannoor to Emillie Meyn
Ideas Travel Faster Than Light
Instructions Harriet Tinney
I am interested in how colour can weave its way into our lived experiences and how our perception of the world can be influenced by certain colours and the illusion of colour.
I have included my personal response to 2 colours (yellow and blue) through 2 memories. My yellow memory considers proximity and closeness to others in a tunnel of yellow fog at an exhibition by Olafur Eliasson, whilst blue examines my dreams of a void-like space of water.
Yellow
As I walk out a little further ahead, I turn to look for my partner, to gauge his reaction. I have walked out far enough for the mist to envelop my body and for a moment I exist singularly, alone. All I see is my body, my hands, my feet and yellow. I can hear others in the tunnel. I hold my hands up in front of my face; they are there but warmer, yellower in colour. Everything appears in shades of yellow and black. As my partner finds me, I reach out to touch his arm, to steady myself and place myself back into a familiar form of reality.
Blue
I used to live by the sea and in that three-year period, had continual dreams of water. I can remember them clearly because they would happen so frequently. The sea changed at night, from a grey aquamarine to a wine-dark void. It would be so dark that the only way you knew the sea was still there was because you could hear it and feel its moisture on the wind.
In response to this, I would like you to make a piece of work that concerns a memory, object or a story about either or both of the colours, yellow and blue.
There are 2 texts that might be of interest regarding these instructions: Maggie Nelson, Bluets, and Derek Jarman, Chroma. I am really interested to see how your interpretation of these colours will differ to mine!
From Harriet Tinney to Muskan Agarwal
Ideas Travel Faster Than Light
The lines below are taken from a children’s picture book called ‘Prince and Knight’, a modern day fairytale, by Daniel Haack with a Cinderella inspired twist and few lines added by me.
Cinderelio:
Once upon a time
In a kingdom far from here
Lived a charming prince
Who was handsome and sincere
The prince met many ladies
And he made them all swoon
But it was soon clear that
He was singing a different tune
And not very far from there
Lived Elio, a boy in little despair
Kind at heart but genuinely sad
His stepdad was mean and mad
With daughters who screech and scheme and scream
A royal husband is their dream
Came the day of the royal ball
Arrived suitors from lands all
But Elio must stay home
To sweep the hearth and scrub the stone
But magic, clock and one last shoe
All find their way to 'I love you'
As Elio walked downed the aisle
The prince let out a sigh
And as they gazed in each other's eyes
The societal love seemed to be a lie
And it became clear to those around
That the prince's one true love had at last been surely found
The king and queen were overwhelmed with joy
We have finally found someone who is perfect for our boy And on the two men's wedding day
The air filled with cheer and laughter
For Elio and prince charming
Would live happily ever after
Note: Dear Artist, please feel free to interpret the above story in any form you may wish.
Muskan Agarwal
From Muskan Agarwal to Harriet Tinney
From Ho-Ching Wong to Shrividhya Sadagopan
From Shrividhya Sadagopan to Ho-Ching Wong
From Boyuan Wu to Kunj Chowla
Kiran Mungekar
-Think about a feeling (emotion, incident or phase of your life that is been significant for you), write it down on a piece of paper.
-Now you need to make drawings out of these narratives, onto a piece of rectangular fabric, using collaging or fabric printing techniques.
-Hang it in such a way that it should look like a flag, multiple flags can also be produced.
-The idea of how a flag can act as a signalling device or as a messenger is quite fascinating! This translation of feeling and exposure to vulnerability will give the artwork a kind of personal entity.
Regards, Kiran.
From Kiran Mungekar to Yiran Guo
From Yiran Guo to Kiran Mungekar and Tarini Haldule
Creation (and destruction) of law.
The operation of law is often defined as violent. Law has legitimacy in society, due to which its implementation can lead to the creation of rights and identities. In the creation of rights, although, there is destruction. Law requires definition, certainty and inflexibility. It needs to create a box, where people either fit in or don’t. Inclusion inherently, and most importantly, also means exclusion. Therefore, when deciding that certain communities get certain rights, the law also decides that others who don’t fit into their definition don’t get those rights.
This is significant because society isn’t as simple as that. People are complex and diverse. Often marginalized and oppressed identities cannot be defined in legal language. Because the language employed by law is the language of the powerful and oppressive. Rights are created by law in favour of certain communities. The use of the word “creation” here is also a misnomer. It is a “creation” for and by law, but the identities already existed. In so defining these communities in legal language, there is destruction of their indigenous, sociological, historical and personal identities.
An example of this is the ascribing of “third gender” and homogenizing the identities of Hijra, Eunuchs, Aravanis, Kothi, Shiv-Shaktis and Jogtas/Jpgappa under one term in India. What is rejected in the formation of the subject contributes to the determination of the subject. What is outside of the bounds of the subject, continues to define it negatively. By creating a standard for what makes a person legally recognisable as the third gender, the law also lays down what a person claiming this identity cannot be in order to invoke it. If the legal mechanism does not establish that a person is of the third gender, their identity is extinguished by an act of state. This is the creation (and destruction) of law.
Imagine an artwork that mimics the act of creation and destruction of law. It’s not trying to find an alternative, but only to show the law’s destructive capacity, in its creation of rights. The giving of rights is a benevolent and generous act, it gives communities benefits under law. But this operation is violent because in the creation of these rights there is destruction. This violence in creation is sought to be depicted.
Muskan Manish Tibrewala
From Muskan Manish Tibrewala to Ruoqi Wu
From Ruoqi Wu to Muskan Manish Tibrewala
From Alex Bestow to Tanya Arora and Meghana Priya Vasudevan
The past few months of the pandemic were frustrating but they presented us with unpredictable opportunities. Allow yourself to dissociate from the harshness of reality and focus on mediocre happiness. Distance yourself from the extremes and focus on the softness of the neutrals and the pastels.
Tanya Arora
From Tanya Arora to Alex Beeston
From Amalia Flarakou-Flari to Medhavi Bhatia
Medhavi Bhatia Concept
Instructions: Go through the performative act of interacting with a mirror, for a minimum of 7 minutes a day, for a week.
Here, the attempt should be to interact with the mirror by engaging all senses, not emphasizing solely on the visual imagery involved in the experience. The point of this act is should be to realize the temporality of the experience, and to capture it through reflections.
From Medhavi Bhatia to Amalia
From Diya Sharma to Diyor Yu
From Lakshmi Kilaru to Mitali Sancheti
Mitali Sancheti
A Play Between 2dimension and 3 dimension.
Write a confession on a piece of paper.
Then built an object, first on paper then with cardsheets, inspired in that confession. Now arrange these objects into a single frame.
Thank you .
From Mitali Sancheti to Lakshmi Saruha Kilaru
Dear Collaborator,
I hope you are doing well in these uncertain times.
I do not have a set of instructions for you, but I have a proposed feeling. The feeling of incompletion. To me, incompletion is a big part of my life. It isn’t necessarily bad, sometimes it limits my worldview, sometimes it leads me to better experiences.
Often incompletion is a disease when it comes to completing tasks, be it a minimalistic cake I want to try baking, or a new painting, or even trying to go to sleep. I start out with these things and never complete them due to a flood of emotions within me. Most of them being anxiety and fear of whether the completed product will be good enough. For me, it isn’t only limited to these tasks, I struggle to elucidate my opinions, thoughts, and feelings and push it away for later, leaving it hanging by a fine thread, incomplete and almost meaningless. In rare moments, these unfinished ideas and tasks bring out a sense of frustration that guides me to try and compensate for the nervous failings prior. They make me to creating more or understand better, simply because of its incomplete nature.
I thought it would be interesting to try and understand this concept together. So here is a poem I have written about my feelings regarding incompletion.
unfinished, untamed, undefined
skin rubbed purple with grief,
the stench of volatility lingers
a vile feeling. reaches into my mouth, grasping for a drop of stability swallowing innumerable lies,
bare feet stumble out of the rubble paint dripping, words falling
I would love if you could complete it and interpret it in your own artistic ways. Although my verses align with the feelings related to leaving things incomplete, you can paint this poem anyway you like.
An effort to try and make ourselves whole again. Complete the verse.
Warm regards,
Anika Ebby.
From Anika Ebby to Olivia Wells
From Diyou Yu to Diya Sharma
From Olivia Wells to Anika Ebby
Dear artist
During the pandemic, I stayed inside the house a lot and become very familiar with a chair and a door. I like the way they move. The chair can go up and down, right and left even shift from one room to another. The door is fixed to the frame on a vertical axis and that limits its range of mobility. It rotates like a compass but not 360 degrees; more or less angle depending on the shape of the room.
I would like you to work with these two objects in mind and adjust them to your memories of this period of lockdown or another of your personal memories. Please make a series of objects or multiple frames of images (still or moving) in any medium of your choice including performance, that incorporates a chair and a door. You can add more objects also if you like, but, the door and the chair should always be there.
Regards. Sanika Rajpure