For exploring the socio-cultural, historical and psychological understandings of doll traditions in southern Tamil Nadu, towards creating a new language of performance. Through an investigation into the myths, movements, language, songs and politics of these doll traditions, the study seeks a deeper understanding of the nuanced performative elements embedded in these traditions. The outcome of the research will be a performance script.
For a puppetry workshop, over eighteen days, for eight participants from diverse artistic backgrounds, with a traditional master Kathputli practitioner from Rajasthan – Puran Bhatt. The third in a series of IFA funded workshops, this is another step towards addressing the need for building a robust discourse and pedagogy for puppetry in India, through intensive training, discussions and artistic exchanges, between traditional and contemporary puppeteers and other arts practitioners who draw from puppetry in form, content or aesthetics.
For the development of a game-art environment, by a moving image artist, based on the speculations around the remains of Queen Ketevan of Georgia in Goa. Using archival materials, the project aims to question the legitimacy of proof in the reading of history, while experimenting with the limits of film, games and the digital media. The outcome of the project will be an installation that will allow interaction between traditional board games and interactive screen games, ideally, situated in a gallery.
For artistically representing the untold private lives of veteran Jatra artists, photographed while performing their beloved characters in costume within their quotidian environments. While the photographs push the boundaries of documentation and performance, raising questions about history and authenticity, they are also witnesses of the transforming face of Jatra. The outcome will be an exhibition of these photographs where some Jatra artists will talk about their experiences dressed as characters.
For the creation of a theatrical production that explores the position of women, roles of women characters and streevesha (female impersonation) within the male-dominated practice of Yakshagana. Drawing from research and personal experience, the performance imagines a reversal of roles in the popular Yakshagana plot of Draupadi Vastrapaharana, thereby exploring the conflicts around tradition, gender, power and morality inherent in the form. The performance is scheduled to premiere in Udupi in November 2015.
For a series of workshop processes conducted by a theatre group to explore and create a methodology of physical alphabets for theatre. The workshops will experiment with nonverbal explorations of textual themes and integrate them in the process of theatre-making. The outcome will be a detailed documentation of the processes that includes everyday rehearsal notes, photographs and audio-visual material.
For a series of workshops with the multiethnic communities of the eastern Himalayan regions of Sikkim and northern parts of West Bengal. It is a collaborative and multidisciplinary project that involves local music, myths and traditions dealt with in a manner that pushes the artistic boundaries of cinema. Described as an ‘interdependent cinema project’, the workshops will lead to a film, a graphic novel, a music album and finally a documentary installation exhibition.
For a series of workshops culminating in a two-day public art festival in the Chitpur locality of old Kolkata. These workshops are designed to re-energise and activate this locality which has a rich history and heritage, through various cultural activities, innovative audience engagement and archiving with the help of local residents, businessmen, artists, craftsmen, teachers and students. Outcomes of the project will include a website, an exhibition and a DVD documenting the process.
For a graphic novel, an exhibition and an animation film, each conceived from a different perspective, developed on the concept of a futuristic city that embodies a perfect marriage between religion, politics and big business serving the consumerist dream. Instead of panels, the graphic novel will have single-page illustrations with no text.
For an inter-disciplinary collaborative work towards creating a musical cartography of Mumbai. Tracing the emergence of a distinct pedagogy and public engagement with music, the project seeks to understand the trajectory of Hindustani music in Mumbai through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially through a study of the city’s built spaces and neighbourhoods. The outcome will include a workshop, an exhibition and a few performances.
