DIGITAL (DIS)EMBODIMENTS

Curated by Shashank Satish

Curatorial Note / Abstract

Digital (Dis)embodiments is a virtual group exhibition that delves into the concept of the body and its intersection with the digital realm in contemporary Indian art.  In the digital space, dis-embodiment refers to situations where a person’s identity or presence is no longer tied to a physical body, where traditional understandings of the body are constantly reshaped. The exhibition investigates how the anthropomorphic body is rendered, reimagined and reconfigured within digital landscapes, thereby reflecting on the artist's embodied agency in crafting the digital body. 

Viewers are invited to immerse themselves in dream-like digital worlds that explore how artists engage with the human body and Indian thought while mediating the boundaries of religion, spirituality, physicality, and metaphysics through technology. Digital (Dis)embodiments challenges viewers to consider how digital curation reconstructs interactions between art, mind-body and spirituality in virtual environments, creating a new cosmology for digital beings in the disembodied space of computer screens. Across the three thematic spaces — “Metaphygital Souls,” “Cybernetic Spirits,” and “Fungible Avatars” — the virtual show unfolds like a multi-level game, weaving newly entangled narratives of the physical body and digital spirits.

Participating Artist Bios | DIGITAL (DIS)EMBODIMENTS

Amol K Patil

Amol K. Patil (b. 1987), is an artist working and experimenting with various mediums. His artwork, is an ever-reaching attempt to recapture the vibrating movement and sound of the ‘chawl’ architecture in which he grew up a form of social housing for mill and factory workers built in the early 1900s, with many tenements fit together, verandahs connecting every door, the gossiping voices from dimly lit tables under which men gather to play carom, the man with a walking stick, the sound of termites eating into wood, wedding festivities, and rhythmically creaking beds.

Amol K Patil (b. 1987, Mumbai) has shown at Hayward Gallery (London 2023), Kochi-Muziris Biennale (Kerala 2022-2023); Documenta fifteen (Kassel, Germany 2022): Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama, 2020); Goethe- Institute / Max Mueller Bhavan (Mumbai, 2019), Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan (New Delhi, 2019), The Showroom (London, 2018), Tensta Konsthall (Stockholm, 2017), Pompidou (Paris, 2017), Pune Biennale Habit-co Habit (Pune, 2017), New Galerie (Paris, 2016), Dakar Biennale (Dakar, 2016), Myymälä2 (Helsinki, 2015); Japan Foundation (Delhi, 2015); Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, 2015).

Anisha Baid

Anisha Baid is an artist and writer from Kolkata, India, currently based in Pittsburgh, USA. 

Through performances, guided meditations and static objects, her work attempts to poke at the flat-scapes of the computer screen to decode computer labour through the interface - a technological tool that has converted most spaces of work into image space. Her work has been shown in international solo exhibitions including at Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, as well as at Technical Collections, Dresden (2020), GIBCA, Goteborg, Sweden and Landskrona Foto Museum, Sweden. She has been supported by various grants and awards including from the Frank Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry, Inlaks Foundation, the India Foundation for the Arts, the Goethe Institut, as well as the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Bluecoat in the UK.

Aravani Art Project

Aravani Art Project is a Trans-women and cis-women-led art collective. While the visibility of Transgender people, Gender non-confirming people and folks from the queer community are increasing in popular culture and daily life, they still face everyday discrimination, stigma and systemic inequality. Aravani Art Project's mission is to bring about change in the way society views the LGBTQIA+ community by advocating the idea of reclaiming spaces in this world through different art projects and raising awareness to create a voice for the community through the Arts.

Aravani Art Project aims to embrace people from the Transgender Community, friends from the LGBTQIA+ communities and a few cis-allies by creating consciousness, well well-being through art, awareness & social participation. Aravani Art Project is a Trans-women and cis-women-led art collective that aims to create a space for people from the Transgender Community, to come together to create, collaborate and work on several Artistic projects. Our work of art happens in collaboration with Transgender artists who have been trained to paint and execute commissioned art projects.

Chitra Ganesh

Chitra Ganesh is a Brooklyn-based visual artist whose work encompasses drawing, painting, comics, installation, video art, and animation. Through studies in literature, semiotics, social theory, science fiction, and historical and mythic texts, Ganesh attempts to reconcile representations of femininity, sexuality, and power absent from the artistic and literary canons. 

Ganesh holds a BA in Art-Semiotics and Comparative Literature from Brown University and an MFA from Columbia University. She has exhibited widely across the U.S., Europe, and South Asia and her work is held in prominent public collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Jose Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Dhruva Mistry

Dhruva Mistry was born in 1957, Kanjari. Mistry studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University of Baroda, India, from 1974-81, and progressed to the Royal College of Art, London, on a British Council Scholarship. He became an Artist in Residence at Kettle’s Yard, with a Fellowship at Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1984-85. In 1991, he was elected a Royal Academician. In 1992, Mistry was appointed sculptor for Victoria Square, Birmingham, and was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors in London the following year. He has represented Britain at various international art exhibitions. He has held over 25 solo exhibitions in India and abroad. Returning to India in 1997, he was appointed Professor, Head of Sculpture and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at M S University, Vadodara from 1999 until 2002. After a period of ill health since 2008, Mistry resumed work with stainless steel in 2014 and continues to display his sculptural virtuosity, particularly using AutoCAD technology to create brilliantly-coloured works, breaking the 3D forms into a set of flat steel planes. Mistry was awarded a CBE in 2001 for his contribution to British art. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Central England in 2007. In 2020 Kailas Lalit Kala Award of Chitrakutdham in Mahua and Kalidas Samman, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh Government. The Artist lives and works in Vadodara.

Goji

Goji is a 3D Artist who captures and translates the aesthetic qualities of things that often go unnoticed but have the power to evoke strong feelings and emotions in us. His goal is to create a sense of familiarity and authenticity, while also bringing a fresh perspective and new meaning to the subjects through visually striking and immersive medium.

Harshit Agrawal

Harshit is an Indian artist working with emerging technologies, primarily artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D printing. His practice is centred around the theme of exploring the poetics of technology in our already posthuman existence. He is a graduate of the MIT Media Lab (USA) and IIT Guwahati. He was Google Arts and Culture's first artist resident in India and has carried out other residencies at the Museum of Tomorrow (Brazil), Art Center Nabi (Korea), and X-Lab (Japan). He has authored several publications and patents about his work at the intersection of human-computer interaction and creative expression.

Harshit has been working in the space of AI and Art for a decade now. He was the only Indian artist, among 7 international AI art pioneers at the first global exhibition of AI Art in a contemporary gallery (at Nature Morte Gallery in 2018). He held India’s First Solo Exhibition of AI Art at the Emami Art Gallery in Kolkata in September 2021. His work has been nominated thrice for the top tech art prize, among the top 3% of all global tech artworks for the prestigious Lumen Prize. His work is part of the permanent exhibition at the largest computer science museum in the world, the HNF Museum in Germany. He has exhibited work at several premier museums, galleries and art festivals around the world, like the Ars Electronica Festival (Austria), Asia Culture Center (Gwangju Korea), Tate Modern (UK), Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino (Italy), Artissima Art Fair (Italy), India Art Fair (India), India Habitat Center (India), Highline Nine Gallery (New York), Times Square (New York), Museum of Tomorrow (Brazil), QUT Art Museum (Australia), Kampu ste Dijital Sanat (Turkey), Art-AI Festival (UK), Augmenting Creativity Exhibition (China), The Upside Space NFT platform, among others. He is the first Indian artist to exhibit his works as NFTs at the premier curated NFT platform Superrare. He curated India’s first AI NFT exhibition-Intertwined Intelligences 6 global AI artists (including his works) at the Terrain.art platform. He has given several talks about AI and Art, including TEDx and INK Talks. His work has been extensively covered in international media, including BBC, New York Times, Artnet, STIR World.

Natasha Singh

Natasha Singh (b. 1988, Jiroft, Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist, interested in bridging the ancient practices of art in India and creative technologies. She has worked with computer vision, and AI to create

Generative sculpture of Yoga. Her main objective is to investigate the patterns of rhythm and its effects on the body. Her work has been exhibited at Exhibit320 Delhi, Delhi Contemporary Art Week 2023, Art Mumbai 2023, Sunaparanta Goa 2023, Indian Art, Architecture and Design Biennale in Delhi, 2023, VHC Pune 2024. She spoke at the EyeMyth festival, Future Conference 2024 and Tedx Bangalore.

Through her work, she is visually exploring the role of repetitions in movement and the emergence of patterns, with an unfurling of an underlying structure. The works are of an Interdisciplinary nature, translating temporal qualities of elements to their spatial constructions, keeping the idea of time as a personal experience. Her work is algorithmic in its making. A merge of technology and artistic expression is at the core of her work, to analyze and exhibit rhythm in practices which are culturally driven and embed historical traditions. Implementations of her artistic expressions are generated as images, video, sculpture, sound, and kinetic art.

Orijit Sen

Orijit Sen (born 1963) is a graphic artist, designer, and satirist based in New Delhi. He studied graphic design at the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad. He co-founded People Tree, a collaborative studio and store promoting artisanal innovation and community building. Alongside his wife, Gurpreet Sidhu, Orijit leads People Tree’s design studios in New Delhi and Goa.

Orijit is a pioneer in Indian comics and graphic novels, with his work River of Stories (1994) regarded as one of India's first graphic novels. He co-founded the Pao Collective and contributed to the award-winning Pao: The Anthology of Comics (2012). His comics and art have been exhibited internationally.

From 2009-2011, Orijit led the creation of one of the world’s largest hand-painted murals at the Virasat-e-Khalsa Museum in Punjab. He has also worked on cultural exchange projects, including Indo-Palestinian collaborations, and was featured at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016) and Serendipity Arts Festival (2017).

In 2020, Orijit launched Comixense, a quarterly magazine for young readers. He is currently working on a large public art ceramic mural project in Mapusa, Goa.

Priyesh Trivedi

Priyesh Trivedi is a self-taught visual artist from Bombay, known for his work that blends nostalgia, popular culture, and satire. He is the creator of the popular series Adarsh Balak, which humorously critiques the educational posters from Indian schools in the 80s and 90s. Since its launch in 2014, the series has gained a significant following on social media.

Priyesh has received the Charles Wallace India Trust/Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Award, which led to a research residency at Gasworks, London. He was also listed in Forbes India's "30 Under 30" in 2017.

Currently based in Bombay, Priyesh has exhibited his work in various solo and group shows both in India and internationally, including at the India Art Fair and galleries like Method in Mumbai.

Priyesh Trivedi has showcased his work in various prominent exhibitions, including Social Animals at Galerie Romain Rolland in Delhi (2015), East-West at NIV Art Centre in Delhi (2015), Home at Chatterjee & Lal in Mumbai (2015), Meinong’s Abyss in Bordeaux, France (2017), You Do You at The Crypt Gallery in London (2018), Fresh Produce at STIR/Method in Delhi (2022), Super Bardo at Method in Mumbai (2024), and Portrait of a Time at Method in Mumbai (2024). Additionally, he participated in the India Art Fair (2017, 2018) with the Shrine Empire Gallery.

Pushpamala N

Pushpamala N. has been called “the most entertaining artist-iconoclast of contemporary Indian art”. An independent artist, writer and curator, she is one of the pioneering conceptual artists of India, known for her strong feminist work informed by humour, cultural theory, feminist studies and social science. Much of her work engages with the construction of the feminine and the scaffolding of the nation-state.

Starting off her career as a sculptor, Pushpamala began using photography and video in the mid-1990s, creating tableaux and photo romances in which she cast herself in various roles. Interested in history and the idea of cultural memory, she cites a wide range of references in her series of masquerades where she simultaneously inhabits and questions familiar frames from art history, photography, film, theatre and popular culture, placing herself as the artist at the centre of social and political inquiry. Often, her work examines colonial constructs and how they are appropriated and used by present-day regimes. Recently, she has been making sculptures again, using the disciplines of archaeology and epigraphy to create fake archives. 

She has shown widely in India and internationally, most recently at the MOMA New York; Tate Modern London; Art Encounters Biennale, Timișoara, Romania; MUCEM, Marseilles; Cincinnati Art Museum and Asian Art Museum San Francisco; Sharjah Art Foundation UAE; Jimei et Arles Photo Festival, Xiamen;  Asia Art Archive, New York; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Museum of Art and Photography MAP,  Bangalore; Office of Contemporary Art, Oslo; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Houston Fotofest; Chobi Mela Dhaka; Auckland Festival of Photography; 11th Forum Expanded, Berlinale. She was the Artistic Director of the Chennai Photo Biennale 2019. She has recently curated a retrospective of artist Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh's graphic prints which will be travelling across Indian cities.  

Sahil Betigeri

Sahil Betigeri is a 21-year-old designer, and visual artist from the National Institute of Design, Andhra Pradesh. Sahil is someone who would get lost on a one-way street, it is because his imaginarium of a brain is reserved for one thing only, concocting things that the human eye may never see again. So fluid is his nature that he blends into his surroundings like a chameleon but more brightly coloured than any of his species, a genetic mutation that furloughs any doubts that one would have about his originality. You may lead a horse to water but if you give it LSD...'Sahil from Nature' would be born.

Sajid Wajid Shaikh

 
Sajid Wajid Shaikh (b. 1989, Mumbai) approaches his art with the precision of engineering, driven by a blend of intuition and structured principles. His work spans various themes and mediums, with drawing as a core element. He views drawing as a meditative process, where his hand guides his mind, producing abstract, distorted faces that reflect spontaneous, emotional responses to his surroundings. These drawings, influenced by German and Abstract Expressionism, have evolved into sketchbooks, which he treats as sculptural entities telling unique stories.

In recent years, Sajid's practice has become more conceptually focused, drawing inspiration from Sol LeWitt and Marcel Duchamp. He now emphasizes ideas over physical execution, working with mundane objects and placing them in contexts where their original function is lost. These works challenge traditional perceptions of value and meaning, embracing absurdity and randomness. By leaving his works untitled, Sajid invites viewers to interpret and engage with the pieces, creating their own associations.

His exploration has expanded into narrative spaces, combining disparate images to provoke storytelling. This shift naturally led him to film, a medium where he integrates sculpture, sound, photography, and drawing, uniting all aspects of his artistic practice.

Sam Madhu

Samyukta Madhu is a digital artist living between Berlin and India. She works with CGI programs to create artworks inspired by futurism, feminism and South Asian identity.  Using an arsenal of digital tools, she creates environments and situations where bodies can be pushed beyond their physical, biological and rational limits. She seeks to create experiences that leave the audience feeling minuscule and immense at the same time. Collaborators include L’Oreal, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Fisheye Immersive, Nxt Museum, Chennai Photo Biennale, W Hotels, ADE, ASUS, Adidas & more.

Shailesh B R

Shailesh received his BFA in painting from CAVA, Mysore, followed by a PG Diploma in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MSU, Baroda (India). His practice is deeply rooted in philosophy and seeks to explore the fundamental aspects of our world, such as existing knowledge, systems, traditions, rituals, metaphysics, and philosophy itself. He accomplishes this through methods of science, technology, and artistic interventions. 

Shailesh has been a part of numerous national and international exhibitions, fairs, and art residencies, namely; Art & Science residency at the ISTA (Vienna, Austria), Art & Technology Residency at ACC, (Gwangju, South Korea), Embassy of Foreign Artist Geneva, among others. Shailesh's works are shown at the Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea in 2024, the Sea Art Festival in 2023, Frieze Seoul in 2023, SAVVY Contemporary in 2022, Asian Cultural Centre, Gwangju in 2022, and Colomboscope, Sri Lanka in 2022. 

Shailesh BR’s practice has been generously supported by FICA (India), Pro Helvetia, Villa Arson (Nice), Warehouse421 (Abu Dhabi),  Vadehra Art Gallery (India), and Khoj. Shailesh is currently based in Delhi NCR and will soon join for an upcoming opportunity at the prestigious Dual-Residency program at CERN, Geneva, 2024.

Shashank Satish

Shashank works at the intersection of Art-Science, Phenomenology, and Curation. He founded Holy Cow! Studio in Bangalore, where he engages in diverse graphic design projects, art grants, and creative collaborations. His work has been showcased at notable events such as the India Foundation for the Arts' Project 560 (2015), Serendipity Arts Festival (2016), and Walk-in Studios (2019). Shashank has also curated Indian and international artists and architects in exhibitions including Designuru (2016), Festival of Stories (2016), Rangoli Metro Art Centre (2017), and Chennai Photo Biennale (2019).

As the Principal Investigator of the Experimental Cognition Lab, established in 2017, Shashank explores the human experience between art and cognitive science. In 2019, he collaborated with scientists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru, producing installations for the ‘Lab Cultures’ Art-Science exhibition. His podcast, ‘Anubhava,’ features conversations on Experience and Consciousness with leading thinkers and practitioners.

Shashank’s academic focus on Indian Aesthetics and Temple Architecture informs his work in new media art and parametric design. With a background in architecture and a master’s in Experimental Media Arts, his transdisciplinary research influences his teaching and artistic practice. He currently serves as a faculty member at the Wadiyar Centre for Architecture in Mysuru.

Vivek Vilasini

Vivek Vilasini, originally trained as a Marine Radio Officer, later pursued a degree in Political Science from Kerala University before transitioning into the art world. He honed his artistic skills by studying sculpture and art practices from traditional Indian craftspeople. His work spans multiple media, including painting, sculpture, and photography, often exploring themes related to contemporary society, identity, and the negotiation of ideas across different cultural contexts.

Vivek's work has been exhibited internationally at significant venues such as Art Basel in Hong Kong, Gallery 1.x1 in Dubai, the India Art Summit in Delhi, and prestigious group exhibitions at Galician Center for Contemporary Art (CGAC) Spain, MAXXI (National Museum of 21st Century Art), ROME, MOCA, Shanghai, CCC Barcelona, Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,  Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil in São Paulo, Brazil, ‘Centro Cultural Banco do Brazil in Brasilia, Sharjah Museum, Astrup Fearnley Museum Of Modern Art NGMA Mumbai, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Academy in Sweden, and the Seattle Art Museum. He has also participated in high-profile biennales, including the Sharjah Biennale, Kochi Muziris Biennale and the Montevideo Biennial.

His works are part of notable collections such as the Smithsonian Museum, Kadist Collection, and the Kiran Nadar Museum. They have also been featured in auctions at Christie's, Sotheby’s, and Phillips de Pury. Vivek lives and works between  Kochi and Abudhabi, continuing to create art that engages with the intersections of identity, culture, and societal change.

Waswo X Waswo

Waswo X. Waswo (b. 1953) Studied at The Milwaukee Center for Photography, and Studio Marangoni, The Centre for Contemporary Photography, in Florence, Italy. His books, India Poems: The Photographs, published by Gallerie Publishers in 2006, Men of Rajasthan, (Serindia Contemporary, 2014), Photowallah (Tasveer, 2016), and Gauri Dancers (Mapin, 2020) have been available worldwide. His latest book, Karkhana: A Studio in Rajasthan (Mapin, 2022) explores his working relationship with a variety of collaborating artists in the city of Udaipur, Rajasthan. He has been an active participant in the Indian art scene for over twenty years. He lives and works in Udaipur, Rajasthan, and is represented by Gallery Latitude 28 and Gallery Espace (both in New Delhi), and Galerie Isa in Mumbai.

Yogesh Ramkrishna

Yogesh Ramkrishna is a young visual art practitioner from Vadodara. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art – Painting from Sir J.J. School of Arts and a Masters in Visual Arts in the Graphic Department from M.S. University of Baroda, Gujarat. As part of his Master’s programme, he specialized in multiple methods of traditional and contemporary printmaking, drawing, installation and including different levels of interactivity. His works convey his own perspective towards our current socio-political condition, cultural propaganda and post-truth era behaviour of society. He articulates the friction between traditional Indian beliefs and urban Indian lifestyle as they come to terms with each other as well as simulates new identities and anxieties which arose during the pandemic. The visual content of his works becomes dramatic, comic-like, stylized mythically charged and sometimes, to an extent, erotic.

Yogesh was awarded the Black Church Award for Best International Artist of the Year, Dublin, 2019. He has been a part of several solo and group shows namely: ‘Don’t Believe Me! I Am Telling The Truth!’, curated by Satyajit Dave at The Gallery of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara in 2017; ‘Intagelo’ Online Printmaking Exhibition organized by Magelo Printmaking Studio, Australia in 2020; ‘Call to disorder’ project Curated by Vidya Shivadas at Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa in 2019.