The Artist’s Book: Processes and Materials
SPEAKER(S)
Anirban Saha
RESPONDENT
Ayan Mukherjee
Experimenting with paper, drawings, comic-book formats, and paper-constructions, Anirban Saha’s practice has evolved into the form of the Artist’s Book through arts-based research, dialogical engagement, community orientation, and visual documentation. This form specifically developed during the Covid-19 pandemic (the impossibility of going outdoors) and were created from available materials in his home-studio in Kolkata, investigating processes of making, viewing, storytelling, interactivity and portability. Reading on the epidemics prior to Covid-19, the framing of artist’s-books was to document the kinds of crisis during this pandemic, in small-format and close reading of situations. Growing up in the urbanity of Kolkata, his work responds to the socio-political and civic life of this city, involving everyday stories of migration, labour, capital and the contribution of the marginalized classes to our cities.
With pen and ink, water color, and drawing ink on paper being fundamental material of his works, he looks at the amalgamation of the non-fiction graphic novel with the artist’s book with precedents in Bauhaus, Dadaism and Fluxus. Alongside, the employment of the graphic novel by contemporary artists in India has been a source of inspiration where the integration of drawings, illustrations, hand-written texts and self-publishing become the modes to produce these artist’s books. Commonplace narratives, walking, fieldwork, dialogues, photography, advertising and popular forms connect to his artistic research, and the Artist’s-Book becomes a way of ‘archiving’ everyday life, in particular, what occurs at the grassroots across the urban and rural spheres.
In this presentation, Saha will speak about the development of his practice, with the shifts occurring from single paintings, small sculptures with quotidian materials, and installations with found-objects in the duration of his MFA years at Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, to his recent Artist’s Books after graduating in 2016. This will also explore the routes of his artistic research and his understanding of probing at disciplinary parameters. The conversation will be bi-lingual, in Bangla and English.
The respondent in this conversation is Ayan Mukherjee, an artist, curator, and founder of Art Multi-disciplines Studio.
Join us on November 30, 2024
at 6:00pm IST
at 6:00pm IST
Meeting ID: 812 6673 8678 | Passcode: 450400
Anirban Saha is an artist and educator, based in Kolkata. He received his art education from the Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University (MVA, 2016) Kolkata, and the College of Visual Art, Indira Kala Sangit Vishwavidyalaya (BFA, 2014) Khairagarh. His recognition and grants include the ‘Special Mention Award,’ CIMA Awards, Kolkata (2022), ‘Award for Drawing’ in the 55th annual exhibition of the Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata (2022), and the India Artists’ Relief Fund (IARF) – a collaboration between the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) and 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore (2021). The MAP Blog carried a review of his Artist’s-Book, The Tiffin, as an IARF grantee.
He has participated in group exhibitions at the CIMA Gallery (Kolkata), Birla Academy of Art & Culture (Kolkata), India Habitat Centre (Delhi), The Raza Foundation, (Delhi) Galerie Romain Rolland (Alliance Française, Delhi), State Art Gallery (Hyderabad), Jehangir Art Gallery (The Art Society of India, Mumbai), and Academy of Fine Arts (Kolkata), among others. He has been part of the mentorship program at the Emami Art Open Call (2020) and a project assistant with the Council for Arts & Social Practice (CASP) and as part of Five Million Incidents (2019). His latest residency was at the Open Space Art Forum, Chendamangalam, Kerala (2022).
Ayan Mukherjee is an artist, curator, and founder of Art Multi-disciplines Studio in Kolkata. Crisscrossing across studio-based work and collaborative practice, he sees the role of a curator who actively facilitates dialogues and expressions, elevating exhibitions beyond mere showcases into immersive experiences. AM Studio is a space for experiments hosting exhibitions, talks, and workshops, and extends the displays beyond the walls of the studio to neighbouring locales and streets to foster deeper interactions with the community. With over a decade of curatorial research and artistic practice, his latest curated exhibition at AM Studio has been Raconteurs: Season 2 (Trap) with visual artists and theatre practitioners from Kolkata and Delhi.
Ayan read History of Art (Bridge Course; 2019) at Kalabhavana, Viswabharati University, Santiniketan and at the Rajya Charukala Bhavan (Certificate Course; 2017), Kolkata. He has a B.A from Calcutta University (2010). He was invited for a curatorial residency at the Bourbonne Les Baines, France, and his awards include the ‘Best Photography’ in Art of Vision International Photography Exhibition (2020), and for ‘Best Work in New Media and Installation’, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata (2019-20).