Mini Art Residency for Students

From the 30th October - 4th November  we held a four day mini artist residency for student artists from across India. The program had a cohort of eleven student artists. We explored the purposes of art and the connections between the arts and faiths, challenges within it and through it opening dialogues for interfaith and intercultural dialogues in local and global contexts. Through it, we drew upon deeper ideas about stewardship, beauty, the purpose of art, and what it means to be human, as we seek to build peace within our communities and our world. 

A core aspect of the program explored and identified the role of art and artists in society, getting closer to understanding the purpose of art and artists, of each other's call as artists. The program fostered conversations and dialogues through the capable resource people who unpacked various topics within the overarching theme, speaking through their personal and professional experiences. While considering these thematic directions, the program also focused on bringing together student artists to foster professional artistic practices, with opportunities to develop concepts in a unique context.

The mini residency, a unique and professional creative practice for four days created space to interact, share and build connections with each other, have professional mentorship, take part in critical conversations, daily reflections  and through this process make artwork that is exhibited in this culminating exhibition.

Art for Change in partnership with the Centre for Imagination, Woodstock School organized the second edition of the Woodstock Alumni Artists Residency in September 2024.

“As the mist rolled in, sheets of rain followed, beating down on the thirsty seeds and rolling down to the ground. Mini rivers opened up, flowing through every crack they could find and bringing life in their wake. Miraculously, the more the rain came, the more the spores began to stretch out and sprout. Little Fibi, along with the other tired and anxious spores, felt a new force of life wake up inside. Some part of her that had been closed began to open, to unfurl. After the growth began, she just couldn’t be stopped! When she looked around, the whole village had come alive. For the first time, she could see her fellow villagers clearly.” Excerpt from the story of Fibi the Fern, on which the logo for the Centre for Imagination was based.

The last two weeks of September as the monsoon was in recession, six alumni artists from across India and the globe came to this familiar hillside for immersive engagement and art-making at the second edition of the Woodstock Alumni Artists Residency. Prompted with the theme of ‘Unfurling’ during the life-giving monsoon season, the residency was aligned to unpack layers of person and place, interactions of alumni with their alma mater and the community and in the particularity of this monsoon season in the Himalayan mountains.

Underlying focus on interfaith and intercultural dialogues added to learning more about the Woodstock experience, exploring what it means to each of us vis à vis the idea of unfurling, reminiscent of the birth of a fern. Each art work in this exhibition is made with ideas of a life force that helps us understand our creative intercultural endeavor.

You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, and what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up.

— René Daumal, French writer (1908-1944)

In June 2023 fifteen artists from across India and around the globe gathered for two weeks of immersive engagement and art-making in the foothills of the Himalaya on the campus of the historic Woodstock School for the 8th Art for Change International Artist Residency on the theme ‘The Nature of Difference.’ Situated between the majesty of the snowcapped Himalaya and the burgeoning metropolis of Dehradun in the valley below, the residency was perfectly positioned to unpack a multiplicity of issues in the context of ‘persons’ and ‘place’, in the particularity of the Himalayan mountains and India more broadly, to explore difference and diversity in nature, in human beings and society, and the world at large. This exhibition is the result of that creative intercultural endeavor.

Within the framework of the residency, this diverse group of artists came together to engage nature as teacher, encouraging investigations to our relationship with the environment, both positive and negative, to consider the challenge of stewardship, beauty, the purpose of art, and what it means to be human by living, learning, and creating together in community in the context of Mussoorie and the Woodstock School. As a collaboration with Woodstock’s Centre for Imagination, under the capable and hospitable direction of Mrs. Renu Oberei, the Hanifl Centre, and the Summer School, the program took full advantage of the many experts on aspects of the region living and working here to explore the complex, intersecting and sometimes conflicting realities of the changes taking place in the Himalaya: meeting in the studio of the forest for nature walks and talks led by experts on the ecology and biodiversity of the Himalaya and the myriad threats to it, Mr. Akshay Shah (Hanifl Centre) and Dr. Chandrima Mitra (Woodstock) and for resource sessions on art and environmental activism by Miss Katherine Dyche (Woodstock), artistic expressions of nature and the environment of Uttarakhand by Miss Surabhi Aggarwal (Mussoorie Heritage Centre), and writing about nature by notable Mussoorie author and naturalist Stephen Alter to further our investigations of this complex and multifaceted topic.

Not surprisingly, our investigations raised more questions than answers to the challenges we face to live well and in harmony with our environment and each other as individuals and societies that call this earth ‘home.’ These varied and multivalent artworks reflect that quest and at least some of the insights and aspirations we found during our time together. Our greatest hope is that when we descend from the mountains that taught us so much, we may take these learnings with us and share them with others even as we leave behind the gift of this exhibition to the Woodstock community. As Rabindranath Tagore put it so well in Creative Unity (1922): …the highest purpose of this world is not merely living in it, knowing it and making use of it, but realizing our own selves in it through expansion of sympathy; not alienating ourselves from it and dominating, but comprehending and uniting it with ourselves in perfect union.

Mentor and curator: Dr. Rachel Hostetter Smith, Ph.D. Gilkison Distinguished Professor of Art History, Taylor University

What happens when artists from diverse backgrounds come together for a week to create art? At the foot of Pulie Badze in Kohima, seven artists came together, each bringing with them experiences both local and from places well beyond our borders. As this unique group came together, it was evident that any challenge, question or prompt would foster a host of responses, solutions and engagement. A conversation involving diverse voices and vast subjects cannot be simple. Yet art, in its beauty, finds a way to make sense of this complexity.

Clouds rolled across the hills and artists brainstormed initial ideas, stepping out into the surroundings and stepping in to memory and the self. And all of a sudden, like when the clouds cleared, artists found clarity; there were sparks of ideas. Ideas that were informed by both independent and collective imagination. A program intentionally absent of a theme immediately found hooks and connections to our context. That of the land, of traditions and history, of diversity, of culture, of personhood and the expanse the word ‘Naga’ elicits. We were challenged then to go a little deeper beyond immediate interpretations. Aided by group conversations within and by resource people, we were able to prime a foundation to begin a conversation on what our work was going to be and would be about.

As the surroundings informed the usage of materials, the artists had to search beyond the studio, beyond the TaFMA campus. Coming back from sourcing their scavenged and surprise materials, artists found their meditative spaces to draw, plan and start building their work. For some artists the sourcing happened through a process of deep thinking, accessing the extents of imagination and in the energy of constantly pushing towards the new. In all cases there was more than we required for the week.

The works produced over the 8-day residency is a collection of processes realised into one possible rendition. The extent of possible outcomes of these investigations and research is yet to be discovered. The works presented here speak of balance, a co-existence with human, nature, modernity, technology; a space that upholds ones own and yet celebrates the diversity. It speaks of unlearning and finding new methods of learning. There is a thread of celebrating roots, yet adopting responsibly the modern and the new. The exhibition is about learning, making sense and re-presenting the indigenous as well as the imagined. This is happening through the evidence as well as the process and materiality. The works celebrate our cultures, values and collective knowledge; they are part of a connection we have to our ancestors. Celebrating an ‘unbroken chain of wisdom’.

Connecting with those who are different from us.

In India, as in the rest of the world, we face divisions of every kind. Differences such as gender, religion, politics, socioeconomic status, and language make it difficult for us to understand each other. For this reason, Art For Change Foundation’s theme for the International Artist Residency 2020 is “What to do with Difference? Art and Artist as Bridge”. For two weeks in Delhi, a diverse group of 21 national and international artists came together to engage the issue of difference, from the small and personal aspects of individual relationships, to the perennial questions of community and social identity.

How does Art address Differences?

Artists are observers, listeners, and storytellers. Through their art, they invite others to engage these stories, generating empathy and reflecting truth. Although solutions to the problems we face are not always clear, art can reveal the complexities of an issue that provide clarity and better understanding. Looking at the strife that differences have caused in the world around us, it is easy to become discouraged. Yet art can provide hope and direction, even when it addresses the worst of circumstances or the things that divide us.

Bridging Differences

The idea of bridging differences has struck the resident artists in multiple ways. Informed by the collective conversation, their work in this exhibit explores many topics in individual and collaborative artworks. In just two short weeks, in spite of their diversity, the artists found that art has created something that transcends their differences: a community founded on love’s creative nature. We invite you to join this important conversation.

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In March, 2020, we held our 7th Annual International Artist Residency, finishing just days before the pandemic spread and lockdown set in. 19 artists and 2 residency mentors from India, USA, Australia, and England worked on the theme ‘What to do with Difference?’—exploring how, in an increasingly fracturing world, artists and their art can bridge the things that divide. At this time that question feels even more relevant.

This year we introduced a two day cultural orientation for the 12 international artists and 1 mentor. This orientation proved to be a great experience for the international artists to learn more about India, go on a cycling tour of Old Delhi, visit local galleries and museums, eat Indian food and do sometime shopping along with getting to know each other and also get over jet lag. 7 national artists joined us two days later. The theme for this year's International Residency was "What to do with Difference? Art and Artists as a Bridge". As Dr. Rachel Smith, our mentor unpacked the theme, we found it so appropriate for our times. The program saw speakers and specialists from fields of gender studies, disability, youth nurturing, and art fields come to speak and present their perspectives on our topic. Over the weeks all artists were able to complete a few works that spoke to the theme in new ways. We ended with an Open Studio which was open to public. This too saw a good response.

The following exhibition which was to be held at the India International Center, New Delhi, had to be postponed as the lockdowns and restrictions were implemented. We are awaiting for the dates for when we can have the exhibition.

We are tremendously thankful that all artists were able to return to their homes without much problems just in time!

New Delhi may not be the easiest city to live in.  Dust, noise, crowds, crime, traffic, extreme cold, extreme heat, red-tape, short tempers, aggression, frustration, and at the end of the day, exhaustion.  Many residents, here for a limited period due to education or a work assignment, end up waiting till they can leave.  Many here more permanently deal with the city by building walls—physical, emotional, psychological.  At best Delhi is to be tolerated.  At worst Delhi is to be hated. 

But Delhi is to be loved.  For many reasons.  And artists, playing that unique role of helping us see things as if we had never seen them before—and usually struggling with the same challenges the city throws at any of its citizens—have the potential to help us see our city with fresh eyes.

Over the course of 8 months, between March and November, 2019, Art for Change is running seven 10-day mini-residencies involving 15 New Delhi based artists at the Art for Change Studio/Office in Chattarpur Enclave Phase II with the aim of challenging ourselves to look at our city with eyes of appreciation, seeing the beauty that is and that could be.  A selection of the best works will be exhibited as a group show at the India Habitat Center - Open Palm Court Gallery, New Delhi, in February 5-11, 2020.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Abhinandita Mathur, the Arts, Culture and Language Advisor to the Deputy Chief Minister of the Delhi Government. She expressed her gratitude for the exhibition and coming together for reviving a love for the city. The following week saw over 600 participants, many of whom shared their stories in Delhi and went on to take part in our public collaboration wall to express what they love about Delhi most. 

We hope that such positive impacts go forward by the ways we treat each other and our city, for as one visitor said, 'if one loves the city, how can that person accept crime, pollution or corruption, you would want to fix it".

Art for Change facilitated its first ever Artist Residency in the North-east of India in the state of Manipur. Collaborating with two local organizations on the outskirts of Imphal, the Eden Estate and Sid Espresso, Art for Change ran a 5 day artist residency for 5 Manipuri artists from 4 different tribal communities. The theme: “Manipur: Mine-Yours-Ours” used contemporary art to both celebrate the good and positive within the diversity of Manipuri culture while also exploring the serious challenges that underly its multi-ethnic fabric.

The residency and following 2-day public exhibition that was viewed by around 250-300 participants were tremendously well received.

While responding to the beauty and life-giving nature of Manipur’s ethnic diversity the artists also addressed themes of tribal conflict, negativity, corruption, and forgiveness.

What was also recognised was that with a rich heritage of visual culture, be it in the textiles, architecture or traditional wood carvings the opportunity of contemporary art to deal with modern issues was profoundly refreshing. The residency provided nothing less than a new perspective on the role that art can play and a new means of understanding Manipur. In the context of a lack of opportunity and exposure to mainland and international trends, both artists and patrons spoke of the need for the promotion of similar contemporary art programs and the role that the residency played in modelling a platform and opportunity for young emerging artists to network and express a contemporary vision of their society.

The 2-week International Artist Residency was a unique annual opportunity for Indian and International artists to learn and create in a cross-cultural setting by engaging with questions about “What it means to be human”. 

Art for Change’s 2018 International Artist Residency brought together 7 Internationals artists from Germany, Hungary, and USA with 7 Indian artists from Andaman & Nicobar, Bangalore/Kerala, Gujarat, Ladakh, West Bengal, and New Delhi.  This year’s theme was ‘Personhood,’ exploringthe idea of Personhood and Identity as it relates to the artist, their practice, and specific social/technological contexts, with the artists working across painting, drawing, sculpture, video, and installation. 

Participating artists lived and worked in a common residential and studio space in East of Kailash, working individually at work stations in a common room, reflecting collectively during daily afternoon ‘chai-time’ discussions, and shared the outcomes in a public exhibition at AIFACS immediately following the residency.

Technology and modern urban living gives us a false autonomy, a sense that we are in control, that we are invincible. So what do Mountains tell us about ourselves?  How do they put us in our place?  

But more than that, how do Mountains help us cultivate a sense of wonder, of awe? How does the size of a mountain, give us a perspective, especially as a young person, characterized by a Wonder that leads to learning, empathy, engagement with life? 

From July 1-14, 2018, five high-school students, six young professional artists, and three mentors, exploredthe question: “What does the mountain tell us about ourselves and about what it means to be human?”in the Summer School at Woodstock 2018 Art for Change Residency, organized by Woodstock School’s Center for Imagination and the Art for Change Foundation. 

The residency kicked off with a climb up Top Tibba, the highest mountain close to Mussoorie, a collective experience of swirling mists, gentle rain, losing our way, discovering a huge frog, bouts of fear and fatigue, and massive vistas suddenly opening up before us.  That experience formed the basis for daily ‘chai-time’ discussions on mystery, discovery, gratitude, fragility, resilience, and the relationship between wonder and transcendence, wonder and learning, wonder and empathy. 

In the studio we worked our individual responses into our art, continuing to learn from each other through shared working spaces and morning presentations on our journeys as artists.  We listened to the mountain, we listened to each other, and the result of two weeks of early mornings and late nights creating together was a body of art exhibited at Woodstock School’s Lyons Lounge from July 13-27, 2018.

The purpose of the Summer at Woodstock Art for Change Residency is to give high-school art students an experience of the professional art world alongside artists just a few years on the other side of art school, while giving young professional artists the opportunity to create in the mountains.

This residency started with an assignment: Make a portrait with and about a young girl.  On the first day of this residency five very shy, underprivileged girls aged 11-15 joined the artists-in-residence for a day of art activities that ended with the portrait assignment.

It was only the next day that the artists-in-residence were told that the girls they were working with were all survivors of sexual assault.  Counsel to Secure Justice (CSJ)—with whom Art for Change Foundation  partnered for this residency—has been working closely with each of the girls to secure effective criminal and restorative justice. That first day, followed by hearing the harrowing stories of rape & abuse, learning about the processes of justice and restoration CSJ champions, and the conversations that unfolded over the next three weeks, formed the basis for the residency theme ‘The Beauty of Who I Am.’  Yet it was that opening to the residency, reconciling the knowledge of the second day with the lives of the first day that launched the artists into three weeks of discussion and creativity around the theme: ‘The Beauty of Who I am.’

Rather than responding directly to the issue of child sexual abuse our and CSJ’s aim was for the artist, and their art, to ask the bigger questions: What is justice? What is restoration? What is beauty? What is the value of a human life? Ultimately, what does it mean to be human. 

I stepped out of the airport and I was in love. Greeted by the smog, smells and the sounds of Delhi one can feel overwhelmingly small. The city is dirty and it’s loud, it’s full of people and animals. Cars and bikes, with horns constantly blasting and people begging in the street. Nothing is hidden, it’s in your face all the time, it’s beautiful and real.

There wasn’t a particular issue we were focused on during the residency, it was simple and complicated at the same time. 18 artists lived together for 21 days while contemplating the idea of small. Art has a power,  that can communicate  in various ways. The idea of creating art, each one of us making a piece that would be shown together, was a beautiful process. We slowly began to get to know each other and the city, venturing out and staying in. Working in the studio together gave us the chance to see ideas being born and gave room for conversation, critique and love. Art can convey emotional and experiential truth, and it can do this without words as it did for all of us through music and quiet time we spent together. Art is also an interpretation of reality, and Delhi has beauty in the color of its fabrics, the sparkle of its gems, the shape of its objects, and the faces of its people. By the end, all 18 of us and our experiences were represented in one room.

-Nikki Owens, Indianapolis, Residency Participant.

From a distance the pile of garbage rises above the city horizon like a dystopian vision, a mountain of rotting refuse with thousands of birds of prey circling above, and below, a swarm of ant-like figures scavenging for remains. Up close, however, those ant-like figures become men, women, and children whose stories helped change the lives of 18 artists.

“The residency was one of the richest experience of my year,” said Josh, one of the 18 artists in our third annual International Artist Residency. Sponsored by the Harrison Center for the Arts, the theme, Human Dignity: the Many Faces of Abundance brought artists from India, the US, Japan, Afghanistan, and the UK onto a garbage mountain in New Delhi to interact with a community of ‘manual scavengers.’ It profoundly challenged the artists’ understanding of how our lives are connected to the marginalized, as well as understandings of abundance and loss, beauty, generosity, humility and much more.

The artists returned to the garbage mountain to share their art with the community of manual scavengers through a ‘walking gallery,’ but also created art with the children and left behind works created specifically for the community members.

“The relationships that were created and the work generated was nothing short of astounding,” shared Berenice Rarig, an artist from Australia who lead the 3-week event as our ‘residency mentor’. The residency ended with a public exhibition with Josh describing the opening night as “sacred”. “It was not just a sublime exhibition, but a powerful testimony of creatively engaging with our diverse Indian cultures in a gracious manner.”

And as always, the feedback from the participants was overwhelmingly positive. “I feel loved here,” the artist from Afghanistan shared. One of the Indian participants, a lecturer at a major art school in Delhi, described her presence as “destiny.” “It was designed for me to be here. I loved the honesty we had and love how people opened up. I am amazed at the openness in artists sharing their weakness.”

“Hope!” “Hope!” “Come get your hope!” the call rang out in the narrow, overcrowded lanes of Zamrudpur, one of New Delhi’s ‘hidden neighborhoods’ made up of the city’s working poor who service the wealthy colonies surrounding them.

As our team of performance artists pushed their cart through the crowds, off-duty cycle-rickshaw pullers, maids, cooks, guards, street vendors and shop-keepers looked up, surprised, confused. These are Delhi’s low-income migrants, uneasily gathered from all over India, overworked and underpaid, often abused as ‘outsiders,’ vulnerable survivors, clinging to their own ethnic groups.  They were used to the cries of the vegetable-cart man, or the man who calls for your used cardboard and glass bottles, but this—“Hope!” “Come get your hope!”—was strangely different, stirring curiosity, and something deeper within.

Ahead of the cart two of our artists were handing out free ‘money’. Where the currency of India’s capital city is power and wealth, we were introducing a new currency based not on what you can get but on what you can give. The money had “I ♥ Delhi” on one side and the Hindi equivalent of “I ‘Mother Theresa’ Delhi”, “I ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ Delhi”, or “I ‘Martin Luther King Jr’ Delhi”, etc. on the other. 

This piece was just one of an energetic spread of performance art pieces, murals, paintings, installations, photography, and video art that resulted from our 2nd Annual International Artist Residency.  For three weeks 20 artists, 13 from around India and 7 from as far away as Australia, Palestine, and the US worked jointly on the theme ‘I ♥ Delhi.’ As a microcosm of a city historically settled by migrants—with its accompanying culture of ‘grabbing what you can get’ and ‘looking out for your own’—we had picked Zamrudpur, a bite-sized community of the city’s vulnerable, to make art with, for, and about.  Our goal was to love Delhi by helping people see their city—and each other—with new eyes. 

The Residency started with the artists led on a series of immersive walks through the community in groups of 2-3, with each walk ending in a separate Zamrudpur home, a cup of tea, and the opportunity to hear stories and see lives up close.  The tours and homes were organized by a partnering organization which had been running a crèche and a women’s empowerment project for the last 10 years and had won the trust of women in the community.  But those interactions, and subsequent visits as and when the artist needed, formed the basis for discussions examining themes of migration, citizenship, diversity, urban development, and more.

We were thrilled with the number of people who engaged with the art, whether through the six murals we painted on Zamrudpur’s walls, the ‘walking gallery’ in which each artist carried one of their artworks through Zamrudpur’s narrow lanes, or two performance art pieces like the one described above.  An exhibition for the general Delhi public brought together all the art forms under one roof, along with some live ‘free-style’ rapping by our graffiti artist from Phoenix, AZ, joined by some Zamrudpur youth—for an evening that had the energy of a circus.  In all, perhaps a thousand people directly engaged with the art—although a drop in the ocean of New Delhi’s 17 million, yet at least a thousand new perspectives, seeing themselves and their city with new eyes.

Our annual International Artist Residency is designed to bring together sensitive professional artists from abroad to work alongside Indian peers, making for some beautiful connections, a wonderful mix of ideas, and lasting consequences.  And for the artists it indeed was a life-changing experience. “We made an international bond of love,” “It was a short time, but a time I will remember for the rest of my life,” “I don’t want to leave,” were some of the reactions.

When our artist from Kashmir, mistreated earlier as an art student in Delhi, was asked why he applied for the residency he responded: “Because I hate Delhi.” “I wanted to see what you would do.” He went on to share: “When I start painting I’m always angry.  I poke nails into the canvas, throw paint, scratch.  This time I decided to start with innocent things.” He did so by getting children from the streets of Zamrudpur to paint on his canvas. His conclusion?  “I didn’t think this residency would work.  But it did.” 

A horrific gang-rape in a moving bus on Dec 16, 2011 caught the world’s attention and shook the conscience of the Indian nation. New Delhi witnessed massive street protests and for the first time it seemed that rape was recognized as not just the problem of an unfortunate individual but the responsibility of society itself.  

Art for Change had been responding to violence against women for several years and decided to launch the first international Reflection Artist Residency by addressing the deeper roots to the malaise but also, a year after the tragedy, exploring what reconciliation and healing could look like. 

The first international residency was launched by listening to a series of deeply disturbing audio recordings collected for the occasion by the ‘Let Her Live’ campaign.  These were women telling their stories of everyday experiences of men in public places, ranging from verbal sexual abuse to physical molestation. The women ranged from school children to college students and office workers and additionally shared their perspectives on the root of the problem and their solutions.

Seven Indian and two American painters got to work and were joined by four others working on an art performance track.  The result was an exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Lokayata Art Gallery in central New Delhi and a series of art performances at Jantar Mantar, the famous street set apart by the government for public protest.  The morning of the final exhibition one of the artist covered himself with bindis, the dot worn by Indian women on the forehead, and in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi’s mobilization efforts took a ‘pad-yatra’ walking from the art gallery to Jantar Mantar.  On the way, aided by other artists, he handed out postcards asking people he met to write down “one way I will treat the women in my life with dignity and respect,” along with their address. Handing the post card back they picked a bindi off of his body and stamped the postcard as a seal of commitment.  Later he mailed the post cards back to them as reminders.  

Other works in the exhibition included a painting telling the artist’s own experience being held back at home due to patriarchal gender roles—a kite tied down by a chair, a diptych of a boy and a girl looking at each other, with sacred temple flowers and their gender differences downplayed, and a megaphone constructed of a woman’s plastic household items which one had to lean into to hear the recordings of the women’s stories heard at the start of the residency.  That piece was called ‘Whisper.’

‘Mukta’ is a woman's name, and also means freedom.  At the start of February, 2013, Art for Change Foundation in partnership with Global Health Advocates India organized a workshop for 15 artists exploring the health & development challenges of women in India, and looking to a vision for what could be. Five of the artists continued the process of discussion and creation in a 4 week residency while the other nine completed their pieces individually from home. The resulting works were exhibited at the Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi a part of a larger celebration of International Women's Day organized by IGNCA and the Ministry of Culture called 'Bhoomika'. The exhibition was inaugurated by the Hon'ble Union Minister for Culture, Smt. Chandresh Kumari Katoch.

“The Lines in our Minds - Exploring integrity in gender and interpersonal relations”

The Problem: Bad things happen to women and despite our best efforts they seem to be continuing. On one hand new laws set lines and yet the system cannot stop those lines from getting crossed. On the other hand culture has created lines, that although meant to prevent bad things happening, end up oppressive. We want to explore these lines, standards and double-standards, internal and external, and the idea of integrity, to view the problem of violence against women from a new angle.

Where do those lines come from, how do they get defined, why do they get crossed? Which lines bring life to gender and interpersonal relationships?

Artists Anni Kumari, Manoj Mohanty, and Uday Singh spent 3 weeks exploring these questions at the Art for Change studios in Dwarka, New Delhi.

Anni Kumari:

Title: ‘Vertical Axis’ (Watercolour on Paper, 18 x 15 inch)

This work reflects the inherent violence of the imposing patriarchic status quo in society. The grotesque urge of material superiority sits on the cushioning organic, symbiotic relationships. Herein, the vertical and the horizontal symbolically stand for the male and the female genders.

Title: ‘Constellation’ (Mixed Media on Paper, 18 x 15 inch)

In this work dotted paths, merging and overlapping form varied contours of undefined spaces akin to the social network of individuals. Like the nervous system in the body, the different units negotiate their way to fulfill the objective of a beautiful and existential organization.

Title: ‘I(eye) to I(eye)’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 36 inches)

Parallel lines creating an analogy of differences in thought processes, yet having a possibility of merging at an undefined point, when placed in a certain perspective. The work talks about how internal lines in our mind gradually translate into physical and psychological divisions. The chairs symbolically, suggesting the need for a two-way dialogue.

Manoj Mohanty

Title: ‘Difference Between’ (Watercolour and Smoke on Paper, 14” x 64”)

Try to solve/erase the wrong line in our mind, about difference between gender. We all are mankind, we have no difference between each other. We all are same if you remove the temporary body/image. The lamps are like people, they have different image and size but their work is the same.

Title: ‘Real Tree’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 30”)

According to our social thinking we give more importance to the male person. But it’s not true, because we all are dependent on each other. I made a unique tree whose leaves are like male and roots like female. The tree does not live without leaves and root.

Uday Singh:

Title: ‘Pure Love’ (Watercolour on Paper, 40 x 30 inches)

Today’s young generation has a psychic or abnormal thought where a female is like an object. Nowadays there are acid attacks on females, and this type of incident evokes me to think ‘What is love?” What is the line between hate and love? Are love and hate within the same boundaries?

Title: ‘Plastic Doll’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 48 x 36 inches)

The present mindset of males in society is that woman is like an object, like a doll, only a play thing. The peacock represents male in this painting and the doll represents female. In our society male finds himself more powerful, where female is kept in the four walls of home. This work shows the present mindset of males in our society, which is not based on truth.

“Blessed are the rich and powerful, blessed are those who are happy, blessed are the good-looking and famous, blessed are the violent.” The seemingly dominant values of our age can feel ultimately shallow, unreal, materialistic, perverse.

But how realistic/true/practical are the words of the Sermon on the Mount? “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also, and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well, etc., etc.”

The residency ‘The Sermon on the Mount in India Today,’ featuring artists Meghansh Thapa, Manmeet Sandhu, Digbijayee Khatua, Gagan Bihari Mandal Bihari, Nirakar Choudhury, and Stefan Prakash Eicher explored an ‘upside down’ moral vision for human relationships in the context of contemporary issues such as violence against women, disparity between rich and poor, public corruption, etc.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Christ’s Sermon on the Mount fills me with bliss even today. Its sweet verses have even today the power to quench my agony of soul…The Sermon on the Mount left a deep impression on my mind when I read it. I do believe with you that the real meaning of the teachings of Jesus will be delivered from India.”

Manmeet Sandhu

Title :' Rain catcher' (Mixed Media, 18”x6”x6”)

The artwork is an interactive installation which aims to highlight the importance of sharing, cooperation and persistent joint effort for a sustainable development. The work propagates the concept by acting as a rainwater collector and dispensing it through the built-in sprinkler on to a bed of seeds. But in case of no rain the work demands viewer's participation to live and thrive, i.e if not watered by the viewer the bed of seeds will turn into a bed of nails.

Gagan Bihari Mandal

Title: ‘Choice is Yours’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 10’x3’)

My painting title “Choice is yours” speaks in a metaphor with the meanings of the “The Sermon on the Mount”. This large format work on canvas presents a world that is both Bible and old ancient Indian treatise “Natyashasthra” by Bharatmuni and my own experience. 

Christ had given the moral view and teachings to the general people on the mount. That is called “The Sermon on the Mount”. Since my childhood, I have seen that kind of moral teachings in the wall of school, club and so on through written text. “The Sermon on the Mount” is a moral teaching, so I connected all of things in my painting through a sentence “Choice is yours”. I have shown here different kinds of glasses and brass water pots to symbolise upper and lower classes and saints. Nowadays we give a high value—as like God—to saints and holy men, but we don’t know what they really are? But my main idea is looking at this in a metaphoric way. Here all the glasses and water pots symbolise the human mind and the 9 colours of water are like the 9 emotions (Navarasa). This was explained by Bharatmuni in Natyashasthra. The Navarasa is compared to colours. One example: If we put milk in a glass, then we call it a glass of milk. If we put poison in a glass, then we called a glass of poison. By this way which emotion we put in our mind, that will be reflected through by us. Nowadays it is very difficult to go through the Beattitudes. But it is not impossible also. If we will carry those things in our mind, then we can do it.

Nirakar Chowdhury

Title: The Beatitudes of Love (Acrylic on Canvas, 4’x4’)

This painting is about love and the connection between God and his bhakts, his devotees. God is the tree on the hill: free, large, all-knowing, without wrong, without shape. Below, we his bhakts, human, limited, defined, knowing some things, not much. The Sermon on the Mount is a set of lessons to be studied, on how to live, how to love. It is about a relationship, a connection, between God and human beings.

Stefan Prakash Eicher

Title: ‘Blessed are Those who Run Out of Gas’ (Watercolour & Charcoal on Rice paper, 6”x6”)

The first beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven’, communicates that we are blessed when we recognize just how spiritually bankrupt we all actually are, no matter our religious position in life, or any amount of self-righteousness or spiritual merit we think we have earned. That moment we realize our fuel-tank is empty—both literally and metaphorically—is a blessed moment. It is the opportunity to see the reality of our bankruptcy. And it is also the moment we can allow ourselves to be filled by God himself, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Title: ‘Blessed are Those whose House gets Bulldozed’ (Watercolour & Charcoal on Rice paper, 6”x6”)

The fact of slum demolition is real, the loss of decades of a poor family’s investments, destroyed in a few minutes by a government that callously ignores its mandate to build low-income housing, and labeling the poor ‘illegal’ hands over land to the rich and powerful. Yet ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’ This points to a larger reality, a promise of ultimate justice, but this also a picture of an individual coming to the end of himself. When we have lost all, all is not lost. The empty hand, held open, is filled.

Digbijayee Khatua

Titles: ‘Journey in our Life’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 3’x4’), ‘Village and Town 0 km’ (Acrylic on Canvas, 2’x3’)

My painting titled “Journey in our Life” explores the meanings of the topic ‘Sermon on the Mount’. I normally show kaleidoscope of bright vibrant, joyous colours with miniature-like detailing to show the conventional beauty of particular man-made objects so the viewers can easily associate with the painting. My work “Journey in our Life” represents the beattitude: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” My creations effectively explore several of the most fundamental dichotomies inherent to individual and societal psyche, e.g. painting urban against rural, nature and culture, and stylisation of city and roads and so on—the divisions that have no plausible explanation and carry no easy solutions.

My work uses house interiors and I compare the world to a road. The road shows the journey of life, typically a picture of busy city traffic, the rat-race, marked by monuments of what or whom society deeps important—typically statues of politicians. But “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” and thus in this work my statues are of the small and the poor, the farmer, the labourer, the woman.

Our thinking is the city is very important and the village is not importent. In my painting I see the village and the city as both important in our life.

The ‘Finding Hope’ residency examined the capacity of the human heart to hope.  Four artists, Jimmy Chishi, Moumita Ghosh, Mohit Kashyap, and Ranjeet Singh, from different backgrounds-Nagaland, Jamshedpur, Delhi, and Jharkand; Benares Hindu University, Jamia Islamia, and Santiniketan-spent four weeks together in an artist residency run by the Art for Change Foundation on the topic of ‘hope.’ What is hope, where does it come from, what does it point to? These were the questions the artists explored while working in community. 

As part of the residency the artists visited Sewa Ashram, a home for the destitute on the outskirts of Delhi, where they talked to destitute men about their ideas of hope. Two men, both with broken backs told their stories: One, after 12 years of being bed-ridden still believing he will someday walk. The other, although having a chance to regain movement through surgery, having been so betrayed and abandoned by his friends, that he had lost all hope in friendship—a broken back and a broken heart. 

The result of that visit, and the formal and informal discussions that followed over the course of the residency produced a range of expression of hope, presented in an exhibition at Reflection Art Gallery in July 2011. 

Mohit’s hope in a world without violence or corruption, with tiny figures representing civil society stuffing the barrel of a giant revolver full of rose petals. Jimmy’s expression of warriors laying down weapons and picking up newspapers, hope found in communication, poetry, love, or transforming a totem pole, based on the Naga practice of headhunting, into a bench that both serves and speaks of humility and dependence as the essence of hope and brotherhood. Ranjeet and his hyper-realistic rendering of a newspaper boy transformed into the mythological Hanuman, communicating hope in a world that not only does not exploit, but empowers its most vulnerable. And Moumita’s depiction of that capacity of the human spirit to hope, personified in a little girl holding a kite, the human spirit growing like so many hands, the hope that grows and nourishes when two persons choose to share life together. 

Hope is to be found. Smoldering deep within the human spirit, even its loss acknowledging an ideal, bringing with it an assumption and expectation that the world be a certain way, pointing to a way that things should be.

Three artists, Delhi-based artists Pallavi Singh, Ajay Sharma, and Nepalese artist Ram Rai spent over a month with Art for Change exploring the topic 'male behaviour and attitudes towards women' in our society. The works that resulted from many discussions, shared meals, and late nights were exhibited at Reflection Art Gallery, September, 2011.

In 2010 Art for Change partnered with the NGO Global Health Advocates India (GHAI) to run a residency that took 15 artists into Asia's largest Tuberculosis hospital here in New Delhi.  The goals were to learn about Tuberculosis, meet with patients, hear their stories, and then paint a human portrait of the disease.  Tuberculosis is for millions a physically, socially, and economically devastating disease. The tragedy is that TB is both curable and its treatment absolutely free. Yet because of the stigma attached the disease grows, with the urgency that some strains of TB are becoming drug-resistant.  As a result of this residency, in a collaboration between Art for Change, GHAI, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and Religare Art, an exhibition was held on World TB Day at Religare Art Gallery for Indian business and corporate leaders to challenge and inspire them to respond to the need within their spheres of influence.  The exhibition was opened by Ms.Sudha Pillai, Member Secretary Planning Commission, and Dr. Ashok Kumar, DDG Central TB Division, Government of India.

1. What is Beauty?

2. Where does it come from?

3. What is broken?

4. What is the relationship between beauty and brokenness?

The deep depression experienced by one of our friends on resuming life after finishing his MFA prompted us to run a residency exploring the nature of human experience in the real world where two realities collide. How do we reconcile beauty and hope with the painful realities of life?

Canned Life is a multi-media installation in miniature by New York-based artist, puppeteer and designer Chris Green exploring the unlikely connection between Delhi’s Coronation Park, the site of King George V's imperial coronation in 1911, and Kathputli Colony, a Delhi slum settled by traditional and performing artists. The installation traces the ‘natural history’ of the bioscope – the once revolutionary, century old film projection technology that has remained in vestigial form in the folk tradition of the bioscopewallahs. Canned Life is a brief experimental entre into the unique parallels between these two sites using video and photographs of the urban fabric of Delhi, reflecting the anarchic, spliced-image and peep-show style of India's Bioscopes and the original 19th century form's dedication to 'looking at life' (Greek: bios-skopeein).

Artist’s Statement:

BACKGROUND INFO In 2009, I was awarded a Creative Capital Grant for my project Ultra-Local Sublime. This project will document and interpret 5 culturally and physically shifting geographic sites around the world using photography, HD video, sound, and motion graphics. The results of this research and footage will be incorporated into an intimate performance-media installation to premiere in New York in late 2011 with subsequent tours to museums and theaters across the U.S. The installation will show how investigating small sites can reveal a great deal about our changing relationship to the natural and built environments. Areas for investigation include: Rhode River on the Chesapeake Bay, VA.; Silver Creek Park in Ft. Worth, TX; Zeer grazing grounds in the Mongolian steppe; 55 Wall Street, NYC; and Coronation Park, New Delhi. All of these sites embody the types of socio-ecological shifts that are in some way endemic to their regions, from rapid urban development in New Delhi to nutrient changes happening on a microscopic scale in VA, etc. Ultra-Local Sublime involves investigating and curating selective aspects of these sites that are gleaned from their geographic histories, social and natural ecologies, and current states of development or decay. Each site will involve partnering with host researchers and other organizations who have an existing presence the area. Confirmed partnerships to-date range from theater groups to the Smithsonian Institute.

Canned Life is simply the name given to the multimedia installation being put up at Reflection Art Gallery in Shahpur Jat, New Delhi Feb. 26 – Mar. 12, 2010. This installation will include a selection of miniature video clips, photographs, and graphic images illustrating the process and results that my research has uncovered in the time between Jan. 14 and Feb. 20.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: A ‘NARRATIVE ECOLOGY’

Fragmentary published histories, physical artifacts, mercurial memories, geological data, tourism accounts, fading signifiers, weather archives, oral histories, building codes, transient social intersections, blatant lies, public use laws, and concept designs are some of the many facets that comprise what I call a narrative ecology, a system of stories that surrounds, penetrates, informs, influences, and extends from almost every inch of a location like the tangled electrical cables bristling from so many of Delhi’s relay poles. I take it for granted that every geographic site is saturated with stories and narrative threads, from the provenance of an invasive plant species, to the circumstantial evidence of a footprint, to the potential consequences of disobeying posted signs; and so, the choice of which thread(s) to follow and investigate provides the entre for the messy artistic process. Because there is so much choice and flexibility in what threads to follow, the process is curatorial and highly subjective. At its most basic level, this kind of open-ended geographic investigation into the narrative ecology of space is a poetic method for stumbling across odd and wonderful things about our environment that are nonetheless ‘true.’

CANNED LIFE DESCRIPTION

Canned Life will feature the following thread: Coronation Park, near NH1, was the site of the 1911 Durbar in which George V was crowned Emperor of India and where it was announced (as a surprise) that India’s capital would be moved from Calcutta to Delhi. At this event was an American named Charles Urban who, with a small crew, filmed the durbar in kinemacolor, creating the first feature length color film in history. At three hours (16,000 feet of film) With Our King and Queen Through Delhi premiered at the Scala in London (along with a replica of the Taj Mahal and a 48 piece band) to profound effect on both the mass appeal of film the then nascent color film industry. George and Mary saw the film twice. Charles Urban was also the inventor of the bioscope, the breakthrough projection technology which still has vestigial remnants over a century later on the streets of India as the beloved proto-media/performance form of the bioscopewallahs. Many of North India’s surviving bioscopewallahs have today settled in Kathputli Colony near Shadipur Depot. Both Coronation Park (which was abandoned in the 1950s) and Kathputli Colony (now a 45 year old jhuggi jhonpri ) are on the punch list of the DDA for redevelopment over the next six months. Whereas the current barren expanse of Coronation Park will be revitalized as a manicured public space, Kathputli Colony will be transformed into 12 story high rises and commercial outlets. Both spaces were established under the aegis of spectacle and performance, and both are to be brought from their current improvised marginality into a more codified use.

The process for this admittedly non-academic research is like any documentary including extensive site visits, relationship-building with NGOs, residents, and government bodies associated with the sites, interviews, archival research, conversations with other media artists, and pure luck. To-date, many individuals have been very gracious to me with information and guidance for this project including Imran Ghufran and Ravi Kant at Sarai; Latika and Aastha at KHOJ Studios; Mohammed Ayaz Ahmed and M. Imran at SARTHI; Bhagwati Hatwal and Rajeev Sethi of the Asian Heritage Foundation; Rahaab Allana, Akshaya Tankha, Anita Jacob, and Pramod Kumar at the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts; Ajay Kumar at INTACH; Bhavar Lal, Santosh Bhat, Puran Bhat, and many others of the Bhule Bisre Kalakar Collective; Amit, Ruchika, and Subhashima of the Frameworks Collective, and Narayani Gupta, to name a few.

In many ways, Canned Life will be an illustration of the difficulty of trying to understand these sites beyond the usual frames of heritage, environment, and cultural significance. For this installation, the research itself will be visualized as an aesthetic of its own. It’s a mess. Things connect which shouldn’t and vice versa. Canned Life is therefore something like a framed napkin-design or an action photograph – a blurred process caught in time.

So far it has felt like Art for Change residencies only engage with disturbing issues such as destitution, disparity between rich and poor, and the killing of unborn girls. We considered this year to do something different. Instead of focusing on the bad news, on specific issues or causes, or on the helplessness one may feel in the face of these, we wanted to consider looking beyond—to the idea of hope.

What is hope? Where does hope come from? What is it founded on? These were some of the questions we wanted to ask. But to ask some more specific questions, too: What is the relationship between hope and justice, hope and dignity, hope and truth, hope and beauty?

The Residency

‘I have a dream’ was famously stated by Martin Luther King Jr. outlining his vision for a nation free of injustice. In our own nation, where leaders often fail to define compelling vision, and where consumerism gives us dreams that are just too small, the artist as a dreamer inhabits a unique space, bringing the unseen into the realm of the seen. 

This one-month artist residency run by Art for Change in the summer of 2009 was designed specifically for students still in art college.  It saw two artists enrolled in the College of Art, Delhi, MFA candidate Sidharth Pansari and BFA candidate Pankaj Thakur explore the topic 'dreams', with the proposition that the artist can and must dream for an entire generation. Through a reflective process of creating in community, shared meals, discussions, and various other inputs, the artists explored dream, examined their own aspirations, and considered the effect that dreams and their articulation can have on society. 

The purpose of the Art for Change residency is to get young emerging artists to explore a larger purpose to their art, to produce art that reflects that exploration, and to share it with a public audience. 

The Art Critique

In a student-to-student collaboration the art critique for the works of Sidharth Pansari and Pankaj Thakur was provided by Natasha Ginwala pursuing an M.A. at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU. Ms. Ginwala’s interest in the artists’ process of creation, in addition to the end-product, is characteristic of her refreshingly egalitarian approach to art criticism: Rather than critiquing a finished product, the art critic’s questions and feedback during the process of creation created a unique fusion of artist and art critic’s inputs towards the final outcome.

I Have a Dream: Exploring the Terrain and Transforming Language of Dream - by Natasha Ginwala

All people dream, but not equally. 
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, 
Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. 

But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, 
For they dream their dreams with open eyes, 
And make them come true. -D.H. Lawrence

Dreams have been variously understood as random thought mutations and neural patterns, as the speaking psyche, as semantic forays and symbolic narratives. Humanity has been obsessed with the interpretation of dreams and documentation of the world of sleep since recorded history. 

However, Dreams also penetrate our conscious ‘waking lives’ as inspiration and function to navigate great ambitions that are not limited to self-actualization of the individual but are more significantly relevant to society at large. It is to this larger socio-cultural framework that social activists, political leaders, scientists, sportspersons and artists have contributed through sheer belief and will to action, often going against societal tide to grant dreams a tangible life. 

The artist residency at Reflection Art Gallery brought two young artists together to explore the terrain of dreams. And thus, began a month-long adventure to create a fresh visuality for the overwhelming world of dreamscapes... 

The artist, Vincent Van Gogh, once said, “I dream my painting and then paint my dream.” The realm of the imagined is a known oasis for the visual artist to extract from...Every creative portrayal of reality thus, is subjectively fashioned as a personal illustration that draws on vital dream-pools – facilitating the expression of compelling fantasies, reflective ponderings and visionary imaginings. 

Sidharth Pansari plunges into Geometric Abstraction, granting his elemental canvas an embodied lyrical flow. Objects appear to sustain a mystery as they converse and remain in perennial circulation – at times within the physical framework and at unexpected moments exploding beyond the periphery of the canvas. These works seem to emulate the act of lucid dreaming – when the sleeping subject is conscious of his/her dreaming state. The experiential duality and accentuated awareness generated by this phenomenon resonates in Pansari’s works, layered with dynamic horizontal motion within a tactile visual field. Colour is made palpable to render time elasticity and stimulate unconditioned ways of seeing. These paintings hinge on the paranormal as they seem to stand as vivid conceptual metaphors charting universal questions that prompt a higher state of being. 

Pankaj Thakur negotiates with the imagined as the ‘realm of pure possibility’ exploring liminal states of ‘betwixt and between’ wherein the dream and nightmare come to be conflated representations of life conditions and existential questions. The artist assimilates his thoughts before approaching the canvas, this period of mental incubation is crucial to his creative process. His ultimate expression therefore, is informed by self-conscious purpose. His works capture the fleeting moments between dreaming and wakefulness...it is the meshing of essential themes – time, thought and desire that come to be suspended as recurring visions in these paintings; the binaries traversed are inherent in the nature of portrayal. Though Thakur’s manner remains realistic, the element of subjective fantasy features strongly in his art, transforming it into a creative mediation.

-Natasha Ginwala
 

This residency explored the roles and identities that perpetuate violence against women, a realization after an earlier experience painting about female foeticide that our engagement with the issue of violence against women needed to go deeper and broader. The goal of the workshop was not just to identify the causes of the violence, but to explore a vision of manhood and womanhood that not just prevents violence but champions women’s dignity and healthy life-giving relationships between men and women. This year our goal of bringing together artists who share a love for art and the dignity of human life resulted not only in 12 painters meeting but also a small film team that conceptualized, scripted, and shot a short-film on the issue. We were grateful to a team of street-theatre artists from the JNU Gender Sensitization Committee that put on a street play to stimulate the artists.  The resulting work was exhibited at Reflection Art Gallery in February 2009 with chief guest H'ble Health Minister of Delhi Prof. Kiran Wallia opening the exhibition and writer-activist Madhu Kishwar as special guest.

We worked with Madhubani artist Manoj Kumar to look at the experience of women in society through the distinct visual language of traditional Madhubani art.

Over a series of three month-long residencies 5 emerging artists who had recently moved to the metropolis of New Delhi from rural Orissa: Dinabandhu Marndi, Amarendra Maharana, Prittam Priyalochan, Nirakar Choudhury, and Sanjay Biswal further explored themes of socio-economic disparity, urbanisation, urban vs rural India, opportunity, education, and more.

In collaboration with the Mukteshwar Mutt and INTACH Varanasi, Art for Change organized a 4-day painting residency in Varanasi addressing the issue of pollution of the Ganges River. 18 art students from Benares Hindu University joined 8 artists from New Delhi to explore the issue of pollution of the sacred river and the role of art for social service.

Art for Change is an organization run by artists for artists. It was started by an informal collective of friends who began meeting once a year to wrestle with an issue that affected both them and society. Our desire was to see our art have significance, and to understand the significance of issues around us through our art. Here is one of our early ‘Creative Conscience’ annual residencies.

The terms ‘growth’ and ‘development’ are measured by economic factors such as GDP and GNP that mask stark inequalities across the globe. The optimism nascent in those terms is often heard in the ambition that Delhi and Mumbai should become ‘world-class cities.’ By ‘world-class’ one conjures up images of Shanghai or Singapore: Asian cities with glittering malls, elaborate fly-overs, and sanitized streets. Yet on examining what is actually happening in pursuit of this goal, one thing becomes obvious: this process of ‘modernization’ often has little place for the poor, resulting both in ‘growth’ and growth of disparity.

What in some ways is more shocking than the disparity, however, is the callousness with which one turns a blind eye to it. In fact, our middle-class sensibilities can end up supporting and applauding efforts to disenfranchise the poor in pursuit of ‘modernization’ and ‘beautification.’ Street-hawkers are banned from streets. While the government gives land to build malls, slum colonies are cynically bulldozed, and efforts at urban development amount to what appears to be the attempt to physically remove the poor from our cities.

Underlying these actions are attitudes and beliefs about the poor that justify and give currency to injustices. Primary is the belief that the poor are to blame, resulting in what has been termed the ‘criminalization of poverty’—that state in which being poor equates to being illegal. Calling the slum dweller an ‘encroacher’ and ‘illegally occupying government land,’ the language used by policy makers and public alike, betrays this mindset. Senior law researcher Usha Ramanathan writes: “The perception of the slum dweller as wrongdoer—and demolition as punishment for such wrongdoing—has deflected attention from where the fault lies, even as it continues to destroy the lives of tens of thousands of people.” And where does the fault lie? It would seem with the government, which of the 8.89 million housing units it failed to build according to the 10th Plan document, 90% had been earmarked for housing slum dwellers .

Deeply ingrained in our perception of the poor is a certain ‘class-blindness’ birthed from middleclass lifestyles divorced from the experiences of the poor. Recent legislation has sought to make the streets of Delhi ‘hawker-free,’ i.e. banning the street vendors who make their livelihood by selling cheap food and wares displayed on handcarts and sidewalks. On May 11th, 2007 the Supreme Court passed an order banning hawkers from cooking food on roadsides. On the surface this would seem to be in the greatest of public interest, resulting in clear and clean sidewalks and the decongestion of traffic on roads. And yet not only is the devastation that such actions have on the economically vulnerable not appreciated, but also the profound benefit that road-side selling actually has to society. Street hawking not only provides poor and lower-class citizens cheap, affordable, and freshly cooked food, but also results in a great self-reliant and self-employed force which against all odds has found a way to make a living in a dignified way, rather than resorting to stealing or begging. Restaurants, with their high overheads on rented space are economically simply not an option to the majority of either consumer or seller among these classes.

What should be said about all this? What can be said? At the root is a simple question: Is the life of a poor person as intrinsically valuable as that of a rich person, and thus commensurate with all the rights and responsibilities that human dignity demands.

In fact, it can be asked: Do our cities only belong to the rich? Must development displace the poor? And, can we ‘modernize’ our cities while still respecting and including the aspirations of the poor?

These were some questions the Creative Conscience workshop 2007 wrestled with. ‘Creative Conscience’ is a community of friends, both amateur and professional artists, who wrestle with issues that affect both them and society at large. What brings us together is our friendship and a shared love of art and the dignity of human life. This year 16 artists met for 3 weeks to collectively reflect on these questions and produce art.

In partnership with the Hazards Center, one of Delhi’s leading organizations working with issues of shelter and livelihoods, an art workshop was run for adolescent boys from the informal settlements asking the same questions and the artwork presented at an interactive exhibition during Hazard Center’s annual ‘Manthan’ celebration. The collection of work was also presented in a public exhibition at the Reflection Art Gallery, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi from Oct 15-Nov 8, 2007.

Art for Change is an organization run by artists for artists. It was started by an informal collective of friends who began meeting once a year to wrestle with an issue that affected both them and society. Our desire was to see our art have significance, and to understand the significance of issues around us through our art. Here is one of our early ‘Creative Conscience’ annual residencies.

It is said that South Asia is the only region in the world where there are more men than women. Amartya Sen, the Nobel laureate and economist explains this disparity with the concept of “missing women”—millions of women who should be alive today but are not.

Recent statistics have revealed a disturbing reality. In New Delhi in the year 2005 only 814 girls were born for every 1,000 boys, meaning almost 1 in 5 girls is selectively aborted in our capital city. Punjab has the worst sex ratio with an average of 776 girls for every 1000 boys, with some areas dropping as startlingly low as 529:1000 (Dhandua District) and 416:1000 (Gobindpura District) .

Having identified female foeticide as the primary cause for this alarming gender imbalance how do we make sense of the disappearance of 10 million women, women who should be with us today—walking our streets, calling out a child’s name, turning companies around—but are simply not there? Where are these ‘Disappeared’? Who is to blame? What are the causes? Where are the solutions?

These and other questions brought a group of eighteen artists together for a week of community and creativity as part of the annual ‘Creative Conscience’ workshop in New Delhi in 2006. Ranging from an art student from Tonga, South Pacific to a lecturer from the College of Art, Delhi, from a 14 year-old former destitute boy previously addicted to heroin to a 73 year-old retired school teacher who paints about red-light districts and riot victims, this diverse circle of friends attempted to wrestle not just with the facts of the problem, but the underlying causes.

As Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s chief minister, has said: “Enforcing a law is not enough. You have to change people's mindset and empower women.” The paintings here seek to address the mindsets which rob us of our city’s and our nation’s women. In the process they seek to champion the inherent value, beauty, and dignity of the unborn girl.

Art for Change is an organization run by artists for artists. It was started by an informal collective of friends who began meeting once a year to wrestle with an issue that affected both them and society. Our desire was to see our art have significance, and to understand the significance of issues around us through our art. Here is one of our early ‘Creative Conscience’ annual residencies.

Despite our enlightenment in an age of hi-tech solutions, we still struggle to know what to do with the man lying abandoned by the side of the road, or the beggar at the traffic light. What do we do with the destitute? What is it about our beliefs that shape how we respond? How does our understanding of the worth of a human life make a difference, if any?

With these questions, 14 amateur and professional artists met at Sewa Ashram, a rehabilitation home for the destitute on the outskirts of Delhi, with the goal of not just painting about the destitute, but with the destitute.

Sewa Ashram is a remarkable place, a place where men and women found dying and destitute on New Delhi’s streets due to addiction, accidents, and mental illness are brought to heal and rehabilitate. It is a place where the 'poor take care of the poor,' because it is those who recover, or who are still recovering, who take care of the others, feeding the infirm, washing their wounds, creating a community a care.

We spent a remarkable two weeks living in community with these beautiful and broken men and women, developing friendships, creating art together, and reflecting on how we are to relate to the ‘throw-aways’ of society.

An exhibition of the resulting artwork was then sponsored by the Voluntary Health Association of India in their Freedom Gallery. Chief guests for the opening were Pintu, Rasheed, Ranjan, and Pramod, all who came to Sewa Ashram off of Delhi’s streets, whose works were included in the show, each their own example of dignity and hope.