bangaloREsidency-Expanded 2018: Showcase

Five young, emerging Indian artists are back from an enriching experience in Germany. They were artists-in-residence at 5 different art spaces, as part of our bangaloREsidency-Expanded initiative. Each one of them has a tale to tell - fresh perspectives, expanding horizons and new experiences, followed by a Q&A.

Special Guests: Ralf Homann & Uwe Jonas are ex-bangaloREsidents and current bangaloREsidency-Expanded hosts in Germany. They will share their experiences of both sides of artistic exchange.

Artist profiles:

© Ashok Vish

Ashok Vish@Lichtenberg Studios, Berlin. His practice draws from his training as a filmmaker and interests in other aspects of image-making such as video and photography. His work has been an examination of the complexities of human identity, especially questioned identities against the larger context of our society. Following a research-based

© Ashok Vish

practice, other ideas of sexual identity, gender roles and social pressure are at the core of his interests.

In “The first duty... is to be inconspicuous” - his final presentation in Berlin - he used individual photos and information files to analyse the need for discretion, for privacy in contemporary India - a situation that clearly mirrors life in the GDR under the Stasi as the East German government's most visible and effective force of surveillance and repression - and at the same time, to examine the liberating potential of public disclosure as well, freeing the queer subject from the bonds of oppression and intimidation.

© Bidisha Das

Bidisha Das@Lacuna Lab, Berlin. Bidisha is a creative artist and explorer with an inquisitive interest in Art and Science. Her medium of communication varies from sound to film, forest to the sky above, human beings and the animal world and nature to technological intervention. Time has always interested her and with that the realisation that we all spend a tiny moment since our lifetime, compared to the vast universal time, is just like a speck of dust.

NOW – A Kinetic Life is an interactive installation, created in Berlin collaboration with Thomas Heidtmann, former bangaloREsident@Srishti, that spans a visual and acoustic connection between outer space and physical spaces that surround us. It is an orchestra of movement using elements from outer space, nature and human bodies as instrumentations. The installation was also presented at the UnBox Festival in Bangalore in February 2019.

Hemant Sreekumar@Experimental Radio, Munich. Hemant has a background in art history, fine arts and digital media. He creates performance art with synthetic audio using principles of emergence and also produces visual media including prints and light based works.

Hemant presented Godsignal as part of the exhibition PODCAST in Munich, curated by Ralf Homann former bangaloREsident@Maraa. 'Godsignal' is a noise-performance that explores 'Nothing‘ which in this particular context is the void/empty space within and around atoms and the processes within various formats of 'Pressure' & 'Radiation'.

© Ralf Homann

Nikhil Nagaraj@WISP Kollektiv, Leipzig. Nikhil is a sound designer and musician, who works primarily with theatre and dance productions. Using custom-made software instruments, he designs sound effects and contemporary electronic music. He works collaboratively with audio-visual artists in a studio space too and invites the audience and composer to look at the music and also to break down the barriers that exist between the composer and the audience.

© David Simmons

As part of his final presentation, Nikhil set up an immersive audio-visual system together with 30 participants in Kontor80, Leipzig. There his task was to build the 32-channel 3D audio sound system and building the sound design on the system. The visuals were projected in 360° and both the audio and visual systems had bi-directional communication to manipulate parameters.

© Shashwath MM

Shashwath MM@Zentralwerk, Dresden. Shashwath is an installation artist who specialises in site-specific work. He often repurposes found objects, creating narratives that allow them to be seen from new perspectives. More recently he has been exploring wood and resin in his sculptures,though tape remains one of his favourite materials.

As part of his final presentation Shashwath presented ‘On Winter’ - his first solo show in Zentralwerk. His exhibition touched topics he was engaged with in his time in Dresden. Themes of wintertime, day light and warmth are used as materials to express underlying concepts of culture, space and isolation, One of the pieces he exhibited, a moon, is shown here.