Episodes
On this Artalaap episode, I, Kamayani speak to Jayant Parashar about his family's legacy -- a pre-Independence film magazine called Film Pictorial, started in Lahore by his grandfather and great-uncle, RK Parashar and ML Parashar. A well-regarded periodical of the 1940s, Film Pictorial shut down once the brothers moved to Delhi after the 1947 Partition. We talk about how Jayant came across the magazine, its role -- similar to other high-profile film publications of that era -- as a snapshot...
Published 09/22/22
Published 09/22/22
On this Artalaap episode, I, Kamayani Sharma, speak to artist Pritika Chowdhry, whose solo exhibition 'Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories' featuring her anti-memorials to the Partition is currently on view at the South Asia Institute, Chicago. We talk about the politics of memorialising the 1947 South Asian Partition, the aesthetic challenge of representing collective trauma and the influence of feminist historiography on understanding the Partition. We also touch upon drawing...
Published 08/19/22
With two seasons behind us, ARTalaap is taking a hiatus over the summer.  We will be back soon with all-new programming -- stay tuned! Follow us for updates and information on Instagram at @art.alaap and on Twitter @rtalaap.  You can write to us with feedback, suggestions and requests for guests at: [email protected]. Thank you for your support!
Published 05/24/22
On this episode, I Kamayani speak to Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai whose solo exhibition 'Naguftaha-e-Havva' ('The Unspoken Words of Havva') is currently on view at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai as well as online on the In Touch platform.  https://www.artintouch.in/exhibitions/13-chatterjee-lal-arshi-irshad-ahmadzai-naguftaha-e-havva-the-unspoken-words-of-havva/  We talk about journeying from a small town to a career in the visual arts, the evolution of a distinct figural language, the possibilities...
Published 04/14/22
In this episode, I, Kamayani Sharma speak to the curators of the 4th Kathmandu Triennale titled "2077" -- Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gurung. They worked alongside Artistic Director Cosmin Costinas to mount the ongoing edition. (originally scheduled for 2020 but deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The Triennale features hundreds of artists from around the world at five venues across Kathmandu.  We talk about the Himalayan cultural zone, modern and contemporary Nepali art,...
Published 03/23/22
On this episode, it's gonna be just me, ARTalaap creator and your host, Kamayani Sharma. I talk about my work on the cinema of cult Films Division auteur Pramod Pati -- through archival audio footage, clips from Pati's films, original commentary (and joking into the void.) In light of the Indian government's recent widely-criticised move to merge public film units, I dive into an important moment in the history of the Film Division (FD) through the practice of one of its filmmakers. I...
Published 02/20/22
In this episode I, Kamayani Sharma, speak to artist, researcher & educator Ita Mehrotra, author of the graphic book ‘Shaheen Bagh: A Graphic Recollection’ (Yoda Press, 2021). On the second anniversary of the incredible protests led by India's Muslim women against the CAA & NRC, in this episode we discuss the role of language in the public sphere, how illustration captures the contemporary differently from lens-based practices and how the graphic serial form allows movement among...
Published 02/04/22
In this episode I, Kamayani Sharma, am in conversation with art historian Aparna Kumar, recipient of the  inaugural UC Berkeley South Asia Art and Architecture Dissertation Prize in 2021 for her dissertation on the Lahore Museum — Partition and the Historiography of Art in South Asia (UCLA, 2018).  We discuss the South Asian museum as a locus of studying Partition through art history, how the work of artist Zarina influenced this dissertation and the violent logistics and rhetorics of...
Published 01/15/22
In this episode I, Kamayani Sharma, am in  conversation with artist Prabhakar Pachpute, among the winners of the  Artes Mundi Prize 2020 about his artistry and engagement with coal  mining in his native Chandrapur District, Maharashtra. Pachpute "works   in  an  array  of  mediums  and  materials  including  drawing,  light,   stopmotion  animations,  sound  and  sculptural  forms.  His  use  of   charcoal  has  a  direct  connection  to his  subject  matter  and   familial  roots,  coal...
Published 08/13/21
In this episode I, Kamayani Sharma, am in conversation with Jyoti Nisha, filmmaker, writer and scholar.She is the director of BR Ambedkar: Now And Then, a widely anticipated, partially-crowdfunded documentary that is now readying for release. In her essay, ‘Indian Cinema and the Bahujan Spectatorship’ [Economic & Political Weekly, May 2020], she theorised about the politics of the gaze from her perspective as a Dalit woman viewer and media researcher. Jyoti was  Director’s Assistant on...
Published 07/21/21
In this episode, I, Kamayani Sharma, am in conversation with Shukla  Sawant and Annapurna Garimella, Founder Trustees of the Culture Workers  Support Trust, an organisation set up in 2019 to and I’m quoting them  directly “spread awareness among culture workers about their rights and  responsibilities". We discuss the modes and methods by which labour in India's vast culture sector can start to organise and collectivise, how stakeholders across public and private sectors can come together for...
Published 07/03/21
As a PhD candidate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Rakesh Sengupta researched early Indian cinema. His essay 'Writing from the Margins of Media: Screenwriting Practice and  Discourse During the First Indian Talkies', published in the Dec 2018 issue of Bioscope [no. 9.2] won the Best Journal Article by Screenwriting Research Network and also  received High Commendation for Screen's Annette Kuhn Debut Essay Prize. On today's episode, we talk about the way in which the lack...
Published 06/16/21
At the Sundance Film Festival 2021, Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh won the Special Jury Award: Impact for Change and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Documentary category for their debut feature 'Writing With Fire'. On today’s  episode, we discuss the political economy of documentary filmmaking,  its practitioners’ love-hate relationship with the state (every  government media organisation in India is name-checked in this  episode!), the influence and legacy of humanism in nonfiction...
Published 06/01/21
"18 May marks a watershed event in South Korea's  ultimately successful pro-democracy movement - the 1980 Gwangju  Uprising. As we come up on its 41st anniversary, I speak to Natasha  Ginwala, co-Artistic Director, alongside Defne Ayas, of the 13th Gwangju  Biennale (1 April 2021 - 9 May 2021). Against the backdrop of Gwangju's  position as a cultural event with a revolutionary ethos, we unpack the  philosophy driving this pandemic edition of the Biennale - notably  through the work of...
Published 05/16/21
On this episode, against the backdrop of Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement that arose in the wake of the military junta's coup of 1 February 2021. I speak to acclaimed Burmese artist Moe Satt about his performance- and multimedia- based practice. We talk about the effect of censorship and restraints on civil liberties on the visual arts. We also discuss the way in which Myanmar's independent cultural organisations like AMCA, Generation Z and Boomers alike are splitting up across the...
Published 03/21/21
This episode is the second in a two-part series on  political webcomics in India. In the context of an increasingly  repressive regime, the role of allegory, especially in the mode of  fantasy and parody, becomes vital. On the Indian Internet, an example is  the figure  of  Rashtraman, a dubious superhero starring in his own webcomic series. I speak to its creator Appupen, a visual artist and musician who  tells stories from the mythical dimension called Halahala. Having published several...
Published 03/04/21
This episode is the first of a two-part series on political  webcomics in India. In the context of protests, arrests and judicial  intimidation of citizens including artists, we take a look at how the  graphic strip format is being deployed to respond to political events in  India. I speak to Meher Manda and Mayukh Goswami, co-creators of Jamun Ka Ped,  an Instagram-based webcomic that since the NRC-CAA protests of 2019,  has been chronicling and commenting on the political and social crises...
Published 02/16/21
On this episode, in the wake of India’s 71st anniversary as a republic, we’ll speak about the farmers’ protests that have been raging across the country for more than two months now in opposition to the three farm laws enacted in September 2020. I speak to Shweta Bhattad, a farmer and visual artist, performer, sculptor and founder member of the Gram Art Project collective, a group of farmers, artists, and other members of the community based in her village of Paradsinga in Madhya Pradesh....
Published 02/04/21
Photographer Hari Katragadda & writer/editor Shweta Upadhyay were awarded The Alkazi Foundation for the Arts' Photobook Grant 2020 for their collaboration 'I'll be looking at the moon, but I'll be seeing you'. In this episode, we talk about this award-winning work through its makers' process and influences and the contemporary status of the photobook in India, in the wake of Dayanita Singh's pioneering practice. The route we take winds through discussions of ancient poetry, avant-garde...
Published 01/19/21
India's first major private museum of modern and contemporary art, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi reopens on 5 January 2021 after a period of closure in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic. I speak to Akansha Rastogi, Senior Curator (Exhibitions & Programs), KNMA about a decade of institutional programming, her own curatorial practice within the museum space and of course the stakes and possibilities of the museum as a political and social site in 2020, now 2021, against...
Published 01/05/21
Delve into the discourse around the aesthetics, politics, and infrastructure of visual art. Artalaap is a podcast on visual culture focusing on modern & contemporary art from the South Asian subcontinent. Art critic Kamayani Sharma interviews artists, curators, writers, arts organisation professionals, and culture workers. Come for the images, stay for the insights!
Published 12/29/20