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 fourth session featured Oona D’Mello and Sohni Patel (artist-designer duo, and co-founders of Est. Form), Savia Mahajan (ceramist), and Michel Casanovas (choreographer), as they discussed their work through the lens of ‘Texture’ – the tactile experience of a surface or substance.
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!
With an educational background from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Oona D’Mello is a represented visual artist, exhibited globally for over a decade; and an entrepreneur, driving conversations around collaboration, and art in its many forms. Her creations in textile art challenge the notion of art existing on a wall alone. Oona believes that art has the ability and must strive to ‘Exist Everywhere’, creating deeper and wider engagement with (and from) the world.
Sohni Patel followed her passion for art and design to Paris where she worked as a forecast and trend consultant. She found her hands-on training at the ateliers of Nanette Lepore, Marchesa and Duro Olowu in New York. She returned to Mumbai and founded House of Sōhn in 2015 — a contemporary women’s label created to tell inspiring stories about women art and culture through the medium of fabric.
For our Projects | Process on ‘Texture’, Oona and Sohni – the accidental co-founders of Est. Form – take us through their relationship and dialogue with ‘Texture’ through a creative play with fabric and paint – pushing us to imagine art ‘off the wall’!
Est. Form is a creative collective founded by Oona and Sohni which aims to create opportunities for interdisciplinary artistic exploration and collaboration, with creative work that spans across multiple disciplines and practices – visual art, installation, fashion, and performance.
Savia Mahajan began her formal artistic training in her home city of Mumbai, at the L.S. Raheja School of Art. Though she trained as a painter, since 2010, Savia’s practice began moving away from the medium of painting, towards ceramics. The transition was the result of a “relinquishing of traditional art mediums (and) a deeper inquiry about practice.”
For our Projects | Process on ‘Texture’, she takes us through the discovery of clay and organic materials as her chosen medium of inquiry and expression – where she gets to ‘make with her hands’ and delve into questions of shedding, transit, and transformation.
French choreographer and Feldenkrais practitioner, Michel Casanovas has studied Ballet and Contemporary Dance, and worked as a professional dancer in different theatres and companies in France, Belgium and Switzerland. His choreographic work reveals a sensitive approach, often focussing on poetics of the dance – beyond only the physical aspect.
For our Projects | Process on ‘Texture’, Michel takes us on a “journey to the sea” – exploring the character and flow of water through mindful movement. Supported by G5A, Water Games premiered as a Performance Long Run at the Black box in October 2019.
