Projects | Process: Season 02 was launched in October 2019. Now a part of G5A academy, the series of sessions features artists, performers, theatre makers, designers, and more talking about the significance of process and its relevance to project-making in contemporary India, through insights into the development of one piece of their work.
Our second session featured Amrita Mahale (writer and aerospace engineer), Namaha Mazoomdar (dancer, choreographer, and theatre artist), and Sajid Wajid Shaikh (visual artist) as they discussed their work through the lens of ‘Space’. Stay tuned for the next two videos this month, every Wednesday at 6:00 PM IST. Each month will feature a new theme, with 3 speakers – do subscribe on YouTube to get notified!
Amrita Mahale is the author of the novel Milk Teeth, longlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019. She talks about writing as a painstaking, yet rewarding process and how the various facets of ‘space’ and spaces influence her writing. She reflects on the concept of space as a gap between what one wants to achieve and what one is capable of – the only way to reconcile this is to continuously practice. She trained as an aerospace engineer and is a product manager at a nonprofit research lab working on artificial intelligence for social good. Her writing has appeared in Hindustan Times, Scroll, Himal Southasian and Brown Paper Bag.
Namaha Mazoomdar is a professional dancer, director, Odissi teacher, and choreographer. Her classical dance journey began with Odissi under the tutelage of Daksha Mashruwala. She is also a founder partner at Drutam Dance Ideas Lab. Namaha has performed at various international dance festivals across Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan as well as India. Driven by a desire to explore the intriguing confluence of dance and theatre (or dancing and acting), two unique disciplines and how they could create new evocative expressions together in performing art. at Projects | Process she takes us backstage by diving into her process of creating HARK! Can you hear the widows?, touching upon different facets of ‘Space’ as it influenced her creative journey – with a sneak peak at the end!
Sajid Wajid Shaikh is an experimental artist whose creative adventure began at age 7 when his mom gave him a box full of paint. Ever since, it has been one canvas, silkscreen, notebook page, paper, and poster print after another. Delving into the concept of automatism, much-loved by the surrealists, existing in a space where work is created through the subconscious. By deliberately stepping away from conscious thinking about what’s next – this process allows for creativity to flow where it wills. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Color is conspicuously and deliberately altered vis-a-vis reality. He is the Creative Director of the Design Practice called 46&2.
