Kashi Art Residency

Tanya Abraham

For the four artists who recently completed the 2016 Kashi Art Residency in Kochi based on the concept of ‘material culture’, the outcome from the exchange of thought and the depiction of skill has been one that has evolved from the need to unearth the seriousness and strength material culture holds- Not just for the artists alone, but for society on the whole. As curator, I chose this concept with the idea of innovative thinking and intellectual research on the subject, which will unveil the presence and continuous occurrence of material culture in our environments and lives, time and again. At the end of the one-month period, I was curious to know what the four artists, Ana Chhaya Kohli, Sebin Joseph, Subhmay Dutta and Durga Prasad felt and experienced, and thus, these questions arose during a conversation over coffee: