Artalaap

On this Artalaap episode, Kamayani Sharma speaks to Prarthna Singh and writer Snigdha Poonam about their multimedia project 2024: Notes from a Generation. In five years, the two artists travelled all over India photographing and interviewing people between the ages of 18 and 25, who would vote the national elections of 2024.   We talk about how to conduct photoshoots and interviews with a diverse swathe of Gen Z Indians from all over the country, what it means to assemble and frame an audiovisual archive of citizens and why hope was so central to this long-term project of seeing and listening. Click here [https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-20] to access the Image Guide. Click here [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h9rN10cvoutKDAXvhswflhmw-oe0dIFuaIoIkWuS-BE/edit?usp=sharing] to access the time-stamped transcript.   OUR GUESTS Prarthna Singh’s work explores questions of feminine identity and gender, especially as it intersects with the fraught politics of nationalism in contemporary India. Her work has appeared in publications worldwide including TIME, The New York Times, The Guardian and the BBC. She has exhibited internationally, most recently at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her self-published book, Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh: One Hundred Days of Resistance was named one of the best photo books of 2022 by LensCulture.   Snigdha Poonam is a journalist and writer investigating trends in India's politics, culture, and society. She has worked for The Hindustan Times and The Caravan in Delhi, and The Hindu in Bangalore. Her articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Granta, The Atlantic, CNN, and The Financial Times. Released in 2018, her first book, Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World, has won awards and nominations worldwide.   CREDITS   Producer: Squarewave Studios, New Delhi   Images courtesy Prarthna Singh   Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee   Promo artwork: Jasper Levi Production associate: Amir Bin Rafi   Additional support: Raghav Sagar & Anu Balasubramaniam   Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0]   CONTENTS   00:00 - 00:37 Welcome to the episode.   00:37 – 01:02 Image Guide link.   01:02 - 03:34 Introduction   03:34 - 07:48 How did the project begin?   07:49 - 14:57 Organising the logistics of photoshoots & interviews   14:58 - 20:57 The politics of the photographic portrait in the era of the selfie.   20:58 – 23:22 Developing portraits through words.   23:23 – 26:47 Frames of citizenship and listening in.   26:48 – 31:15 Excerpts and comments about the audio clips of soundscapes from the exhibition.   31:15 – 33:30 Matters of trust.   31:31 - 35:43 The temporality of the portrait.   35:44 – 38:25  What’s next for the series?   38:35 – 39:28 – Closing comments by the host. REFERENCES Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography, 2008. Snidgha Poonam, Dreamers, 2018. Kamayani Sharma, "Prarthna Singh: 100 Days of Resistance", Aperture, Summer 2021. https://archive.aperture.org/article/2021/2/2/prarthna-singh [https://archive.aperture.org/article/2021/2/2/prarthna-singh]

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 of South Asia's urban cinema culture straddling India and Pakistan's Independence as well as the scattershot, digital preservation of lost archives through which we reconstruct and respond to that era. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST HERE: Jayant Parashar is a Mumbai-based cinematographer and musician. Film Pictorial (1941-1947) was an English-language magazine on Hindustani cinema co-founded and edited by his grandfather and great-uncle in Lahore. Credits: Producer: Squarewave Studios, New Delhi Executive Producer: Kanishka Sharma Production Associate: Priya Thakur Images courtesy Jayant Parashar via Surjit Singh Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee Marketing: Dipalie Mehta Additional support: Raghav Sagar Patreon support: Shalmoli Halder Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0] CONTENTS 0.00-02.30 – Introduction 02.30- 07.40– Discovering a family legacy. 07.40- 15.00 – Back issues of Film Pictorial on the internet. 15.00 - 18.51 – The Parashar brothers and their engagement with the pre-Independence film industry. 18.51 - 27.34 – The wide range of topics the magazine has explored, both serious and light-hearted versus the present day reporting on the film industry. 27.34- 31.37 – Film Pictorial after the Partition, and the value of vintage film magazines in the present. 31.37- 33.28 – How family legacies impact worldviews.

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 parallels with other colonial divisions of territory as well as ongoing civil conflict in the global south, and the limits of testimony in the contemporary period. You can learn more about the exhibition here: https://www.saichicago.org/exhibition/pritika-chowdhry-unbearable-memories-unspeakable-histories [https://www.saichicago.org/exhibition/pritika-chowdhry-unbearable-memories-unspeakable-histories] or at the South Asia Institute, Chicago's Instagram page @southasiainstitute. Click here to access the Image+ Guide & view the material being discussed in the podcast: https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-18. [https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-16] For a time-stamped list of Contents, click here: http:/bit.ly/3CeUTWz [//http:/bit.ly/3CeUTWz] LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST HERE: Pritika Chowdhry is a feminist and postcolonial artist, curator, and writer whose work is in both public and private collections. Chowdhry has exhibited nationally and internationally in group and solo exhibitions in the Weisman Art Museum, Queens Museum, Hunterdon Museum, Islip Art Museum, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, DoVA Temporary, Brodsky Center, and Cambridge Art Gallery. Her work has been written up in various scholarly publications, including the journals GeoHumanities, Social Transformations Journal of the Global South, and Progress in Human Geography, in addition to news outlets such as CBS, NBC, and Hindustan Times. She is the recipient of Vilas International Travel Fellowship, Edith and Sinaiko Frank Fellowship for a Woman in the Arts, Wisconsin Arts Board grant, and Minnesota State Arts Board grant. She has presented her studio research projects at various national conferences, such as International Arts Symposium at NYU, The Contested Terrains of Globalization at UC-Irvine, and the South Asian Conference at UW-Madison. Chowdhry holds an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in Visual Culture and Gender Studies from UW-Madison and has taught at Macalester College and the College of Visual Arts. Born and raised in India, Chowdhry is currently based in Chicago. Credits: Producer: Squarewave Studios, New Delhi Executive Producer: Kanishka Sharma Intern: Priya Thakur Images courtesy Pritika Chowdhry Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee Marketing: Dipalie Mehta Additional support: Raghav Sagar Patreon support: Shalmoli Halder Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0]

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: artalaap.podcast@gmail.com. Thank you for your support!

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 of abstraction as an aesthetic mode during a period of repression and Arshi's engagement with time and space in her process-based practice. We also touch upon the use of text as image, the spiritual aspect of art-making, the gendering of material and the abiding influence of Zarina and Nasreen Mohamedi.  Learn about our guest:  Arshi Irshad Ahmadzai born in Najibabad, graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts (2011) from Aligarh Muslim University and later pursued a Masters in Fine Arts from Jamia Millia Islamia (2013). She won the Inlaks Fine Art Award in 2019. Working with a range of mediums including painting, printmaking and photography, Ahmadzai’s artistic practice is centred around women. Her knowledge of Urdu, Persian and Arabic allows her to understand the nuances of language, which find their way into her work. She lives and works in Weimar, Germany.  Click here to access the Image+ Guide & view the material being discussed in the podcast: https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-17  [https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-17 ] Click here [https://bit.ly/3Ofjmyn] for the time-stamped Contents page: bit.ly/3Ofjmyn Click here [https://bit.ly/37PeIGT] for the English-language transcript: bit.ly/37PeIGT Credits:  Producer: Varun Kapahi  Executive Producer: Kanishka Sharma  Intern: Priya Thakur  Images: Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai; Blueprint 12, New Delhi; Shrine Empire, New Delhi.  Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee  Marketing: Dipalie Mehta  Additional support: Raghav Sagar, Shalmoli Halder, Arunima Nair, Jayant Parashar.  Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0]