A decade of Serendipity Arts Festival
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Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Serendipity Arts Residency artists present collage of tales, transformation, and intimacy
New Delhi, Ningkhan Keishing looks at the tall three-legged "sculptural folktale" that he has created and is transported back to his home in Manipur, where sitting around the Lusivi, the wood stove, his mother would tell him a "Phunga Wari", a traditional folk tale. Serendipity Arts Residency artists present collage of tales, transformation, and intimacy At the culmination of three-month Serendipity Arts Residency, Keishing is one of the five artists to showcase his work here for a week-long multidisciplinary exhibition that explores the idea of memory, transformation, intimacy, sexuality and identities. The 29-year-old Keishing from Manipur has pulled out from his memories the traditional wood stove and given it a large ceramic interpretation, verging on the abstract, titled "Phunga Wari" , as a vessel for memory, storytelling, and intergenerational wisdom. "It's like a fire place, where people gather around and share stories. The elders of the house tell tales. They narrate folk tales and stuff. It's a warm kind of feeling. I tried to create that and I want to create this kind of folk tale that already exists in the tradition and it is vanishing today," the ceramicist told PTI. The sculpture is also a call to one of the stories his mother would tell him where the three legs of the stove are represented by the mother, the father, and the spirit. "Like a song passed down through generations, this piece holds nostalgia and imagination in equal measure. I want people to pause before this abstract form and wonder - what is it? What does it mean? I want them to feel, even without words, the story my mother once shared," he said. The eighth edition of the Open Studio exhibition, running from August 2-8, is part of the Serendipity Arts Foundation's year-long lead up to the 10th edition of Serendipity Arts Festival, to take place in Panjim, Goa, from December 12-21. The studio space was shared by residents: Keishing, Anishaa Tavag, Anshumaan Sathe, Malavika Bhatia, Valia Russo, and programmer-in-residence Harshada Vijay. While Keishang looks at memory and traditions, Bhatia in "Archive of Impossible Exologies" reflects on their relationship with Schizophyllum commune, a resilient fungal species, and weaves together a narrative through colonial archives, living fungal cultures, and a living text. The deeply personal collaboration with the mushroom has resulted in decomposing installations that respond to touch, breath, and time. Bhatia has also attempted to create a mycelial book that grows and rots and is subject to constant transformation. "It's a relationship that I have had with this fungus for many years and it has helped me understand the world a lot better. I have created a living text with it, I have created sculptures, spore prints of it, and just kind of think through how mycelium, which is basically the body of a fungus, gives us a different model of how we think of memory," the 31-year-old forager said. The fungus, which can be commonly found across the world, has also made Bhatia connect with a place that would have been a strange setting otherwise similar to finding a kin at a new place. "When I am in a new place where I am having a difficult time, and if I see it I feel settled that my kin is here. Someone I know is here," he added. Anshumaan Sathe has delved on gender identity and sexual fantasies in their showcase, "Come Play With Me". It is a series of intimate portraits emerging from conversations, letters, and sketching workshops with fellow trans people with an objective of normalising trans bodies and their sexualities. "The larger mainstream narrative is about how we are having so much unnatural sex and there is a lot of shouting about that, there is very little meaningful conversation. For trans people, our body is something that we create and it can often feel like something that doesn't belong to us," the 25-year-old said. The week-long exhibition looks at masculinity and desire through dance in Anishaa Tavag's performance piece "Hi Bi Kadlekai", and investigates the overflow of digital images and the psychic residue they leave behind in Valia Russo's "Pediluve". While Russo's work confronts the image-fatigue with acts of filtering and fragmentation, Tavag's dance reflects on fluid identity and the shapeshifting nature of desire, drawing from childhood stereotypes of Bollywood heroes. Programmer-in-Residence Harshada Vijay said that at the heart of this year's curatorial thread is the idea of "chance", who observed early into the residency that all residents were engaging, whether consciously or intuitively, with the unknown: letting materials dictate form, inviting others into their processes, and opening up their work to the unpredictable. "Chance became the quiet anchor of the residency. It revealed itself in experiments, in serendipitous meetings between mediums and artists, and in the space between control and surrender," she said. The week-long showcase will feature a series of performances, walkthroughs, workshops, and conversations that invite the public to engage deeply with the residents' evolving practices. The open studio will come to an end on August 8. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Time of India
02-08-2025
- Time of India
Serendipity Arts residents' tryst with chance, artistry and transformation
The Open Studio is not just a showcase of artistic output, but a celebration of dynamicity, vulnerability, and artistic companionship The Serendipity Arts Foundation is alive with the energy of emerging artists and lovers of artistic experiments, as it kicked off its Open Studio, a weeklong showcase for the Serendipity Arts Residency 2025, running through August 8. Billed as a 'constellation of images, ideas, textures and emotions,' the Open Studio offers more than a glimpse into the minds of six residents, Anishaa Tavag, Anshumaan Sathe, Malavika Bhatia, Ningkhan Keishing, Valia Russo, and Programmer-in-Residence Harshada Vijay, who have immersed themselves in a three-month journey of experimentation and collaboration in the eighth edition of the Residency, which is an annual flagship for cultivating new artistic voices. Open Studio offers more than a glimpse into the minds of six talented residents - Ningkhan Keishing, Malavika Bhatia, Anshumaan Sathe, Anishaa Tavag, Valia Russo and Programmer-in-Residence Harshada Vijay Behind this curation was the theme: chance. 'Chance became the quiet anchor of the residency,' shares Harshada Vijay, Programmer-in-Residence, reflecting the spirit of risk and openness that united this cohort. Over shared meals and studio walls, artists meandered between disciplines, letting materials and serendipity guide the way. 'The Residency programme has always been a space for discovery for the artists and for us,' says Smriti Rajgarhia, Director, Serendipity Arts. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like World's 25 Best Cities to Live In Learn More Undo 'This year's residents remind us that artistic practice is as much about vulnerability and generosity as it is about creativity. What emerges from their work is not just individual expression, but evidence of a thriving creative ecosystem. The Foundation hopes to nurture: artistic practices that are brave, generous, and deeply rooted in context. " Here's what took form in the past three months: Come Play With Me by Anshumaan Sathe Anshu's project is equal parts intimate and unapologetic, a series of tender portraits created in dialogue with fellow trans folks. Emerging from letters, oral conversations, and sketching workshops, these portraits aren't merely visual studies, they're love letters that reclaim joy, desire, and the act of being seen, infusing the space with humour and honesty. Archive of Impossible Exologies by Malavika Bhatia Archive of Impossible Exologies by Malavika Bhatia (as MycoDyke) Teaming up with the resilient fungus Schizophyllum commune, M has created living installations, decomposing, responsive to touch, breath, and time. Their project weaves together a Punjabi riddle about mushrooms, colonial archives, living fungal cultures, and the displacement of ancestral memory. The centrepiece was a 'mycelial book', made of agar agar and mycelium, which grows and rots. About the installations and the work, they say, "All of this started with foraging. It (Fungi) really has a mind of its own. I haven't done this alone," quipped M, while interacting with curious visitors. Come Play With Me by Anshumaan Sathe Hi Bi Kadlekai by Anishaa Tavag Through dance, Tavag explores the play and performance of masculinity—a shapeshifting exploration inspired by Bollywood heroes and personal longing. Vulnerable yet playful, her movement-based installation asks: What does masculinity look like, and who gets to inhabit it? Her performance blurs the line between fantasy and embodiment, prompting viewers to reflect on their cultural scripts. "I look at what makes the male star, what actions create that aura around the male star. This was not about disavowing femininity, but embracing what is masculine. I feel masculinity is not limited to men," she remarked, while interacting with the audience post her performance. Hi Bi Kadlekai by Anishaa Tavag Phunga Wari (Lusivi) by Ningkhan Keishing Rooted in his Tangkhul Naga heritage, Keishing's large ceramic installation reimagines the traditional three-legged wood stove of his childhood, each leg symbolising a parent and the spirit. With stories passed down from his mother, the piece becomes a vessel for memory and intergenerational wisdom, dynamically blending indigenous practice with contemporary abstraction. Pédiluve by Valia Russo French artist Valia Russo draws us into the anxiety of digital excess with an installation that fuses photography, urban waste, and botanical matter. Named after the French ritual of cleansing before entering sanctity, his work is a poetic filter for our image-saturated lives, generating hybrids that float between ruin and renewal, and challenging us to question how we process today's visual overload. Pédiluve by Valia Russo One can expect work in process, performative experiments and dialogues with artists. Visit, don't miss the chance ! Pics: Serendipity Arts Foundation
The Hindu
31-07-2025
- The Hindu
Weftscapes Contemporary Jamdani Exhibition in Bengaluru
Six years ago, an art exhibition spotlighting India's jamdani weave debuted at Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa. Helmed by textile artist Bappaditya Biswas, the exhibition titled New Horizons: Weftscapes, reimagined the weave with a supplementary weft, and blended materials like metal wires, electric cables, chiffon scraps, and bullion threads into the fabric. After doing the rounds internationally, and most recently at the Bengal Biennale, the show now comes to Bengaluru this month. Bappaditya says he began work on the project before the pandemic hit, and the idea was to showcase traditional Indian craftsmanship in a contemporary manner. 'Given my experience, I came to realise that when Indian textiles are showcased, the focus is always on the historical aspects of the textile and not what is happening in the present,' says the artist who also co-founded the brand Bai Lou and the iconic Kolkata store, Byloom, with his wife, Rumi. Bappaditya also explains that another push for the project came in 2018 when the GI tag for the jamdani weave went to Bangladesh. 'My artisans questioned their identity. I then started to create something different from what jamdani was usually known for to help create a new identity for the weavers,' says the artist who is also known for chintz paintings. It is a traditional Indian technique that involves decorating cotton cloth with intricate, vibrant designs using a combination of hand-painting and block printing, and Bappaditya is now working on a set of 20 paintings for a gallery in Delhi. And with a mission to spotlight the jamdani, Bappaditya embarked on the project blending indigo with the weave. Both having a rich connection to Bengal, aside, he chose jamdani and indigo to highlight their contemporary adaptations. 'I also wanted to highlight the Tangail jamdani, which originated in Bangladesh's Tangail district. These saris are known for their intricate designs that are woven using a supplementary weft technique, resulting in fine, detailed motifs,' he says of Weftscapes that had six weavers and 10 women artisans on board. An important design detail of the jamdani weave was the use of the colour indigo 'which also lent its name to several lengths of fabric with the iconic Nilambari sari becoming popular across the subcontinent'. Hence, Weftscapes exclusively uses the Indigo palette 'with its non-traditional yarns being dyed in organic Indigo vats; namely in a banana vat, dates vat and the henna vat'. Of all the pieces in the collection, Bappaditya says the one using copper wires was the hardest to create. 'The weavers couldn't comprehend using the material,' he says, adding that each piece took 30 to 45 days to finish. Other fabrics include silk organza (dyed in different shades of indigo) cut in the shape of leaves, indigo-dyed cotton balls, yarn from sequins, etc. From August 4 to 9 at Ambara, No 22, Annaswamy Mudaliar Road, Ulsoor
