Patel Khushbu Prafulchandra

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA under Explorations will explore micro-movements in nature, through meditative observations captured through drawings, sounds and videos. This will include lo-fi kinetic, sound installations, zoetrope experiments that will translate kinaesthetic slowness into a shared sensory experience. Patel Khushbu Prafulchandra is the Coordinator for this project. 

Patel Khushbu Prafulchandra (known as Khushbu Patel) is an interdisciplinary visual artist currently based in Bangalore, India, who did her MFA from the Department of Art, Design and Performing Arts at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi (2015-2017), following her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Surat. Her practice investigates the fluidity of change through a diverse range of mediums, including drawings, installations, site-responsive interventions, performative photography, and video, with a conceptual focus on the act of drawing and exploring new dimensions in response to space, emphasising how process and time fundamentally shape transformation. The artist has significantly developed her international profile through numerous residencies, including the prestigious Institute Français Residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France (2022), DRAWinternational in Caylus, France (2019), and the Kooshk Arts Residency in Tehran, Iran (2018). Khushbu has been recognised with multiple grants and awards, notably the Embassy of France / IFI Travel Grant (2022), the Serendipity Art Foundation Production Grant (2022), and the Experimenter Generator Co-operative Art Production Grant (2021). Khushbu's work has been featured in numerous group shows and workshops internationally, such as The Invisible Realm of Possibility in Paris (2019) and the Feral Ecologies group show at HH Art Space, Goa (2024). Given her experience, Patel Khushbu Prafulchandra is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

The project Even in Stillness (Ants Walk, Birds Chirp, Cat Purrs) will be an exploration of change, materiality, and temporality, revolving around the intersection of inner and outer landscapes. The artist will employ a meditative process of capturing micro-movements in nature, deriving a sense of quietness and presence from observing elements of life, inspired by how haikus “do not describe, but notice.” The work will investigate the "kinaesthetic of slowness" by focusing on minor gestures and fleeting moments in the artist's immediate surroundings, such as the movements of insects, the wind's influence on surfaces, and the minute sounds of domestic life. This will involve field work, bird watching, sketching, and walking to be present to slowness that is lived and felt. 

The artistic process will include site-responsive, multimedia installation experiments featuring kinetic objects, such as drawings moved by electric motors or air, or a zoetrope, and a sound component that uses layered field recordings of quiet environmental sounds to translate the experience of 'being present' into a shared, sensory space for the viewer. The artist wishes to experiment with simple, even lo-fi, tools - like video, looping animation in small screens, zoetrope, projection, time-lapse photography, photo books, flip books, small mock-ups or paper-based mechanisms.

The outcome of the project will be a series of small experimental studies in drawing and sound to capture micro-movements observed in nature, along with process-led open-ended kinetic trials, including a zoetrope. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA with the final report will be the audio-visual documentation of the artistic process.   

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Practice programme in the manner in which it attempts to be present to the slowness in urban wild life, through capturing micro-movements in the tiny life-forms around, at a time when the urban populace is perpetually distracted, staring into their mobile phones. 

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm by convening an online gathering of artists coordinating Explorations projects. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees. 

This project is supported by Parijat Foundation.