As part of AAA’s teacher professional development programme, the 2018 Teaching Labs series discusses women in art history. Teachers, students, and members of the public are welcome to join a talk on women in art in India.
Following a talk on women in art in India, a workshop introduces teachers to related materials in AAA’s Collection, while a tour of the artist Nilima Sheikh’s exhibition is also offered to participants.
Talk | 2–3:15pm
Speaker: Sneha Ragavan, AAA Researcher
Language: English
This talk attempts to trace the emergence of a feminist subjectivity in the representations of women in the arts of India. It begins with an overview of how women conventionally figured in modern art history of India as objects of representation. In contrast to this, there has emerged the work of women practitioners who not only critiqued such modes of representation, but also heralded new aesthetic sensibilities attentive to the gendered nature of artistic discourses.
The talk explores the works and contributions of specific artists such as Rummana Hussain, Nalini Malani, Nilima Sheikh, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Arpana Caur, Anupam Sud, Navjot Altaf, Sheba Chhachhi, Madhvi Parekh, and Meera Mukherjee, to name a few. It contextualises their practices within broader historical frames, movements, themes, and categories from art, cinema, and literature. These include histories of nationalism and partition, migration and displacement, the women’s movement, craft and traditional art, the gendered body, notions of beauty, violence and the gaze, among others, for how integral they were to shaping the emergence of a feminist aesthetics.
A tour of the Nilima Sheikh Exhibition on view at AAA Library will be offered to teachers who sign up for the talk, from 1:30–2pm. AAA Public Programmes Lead, Özge Ersoy, will lead the tour.
Workshop | 3:30–5:30pm
*Exclusive for teachers
Facilliators:
Susanna Chung, AAA Programmes Manager and Head of Learning & Participation
Elaine Lin, AAA Collection Manager
Language: English and Cantonese
The workshop promotes a learning community for teachers that builds on knowledge in contemporary art and develops new tools for different educational settings. The talk will be summarised into keywords for group discussions, as teachers consider methods of sharing the knowledge in classroom settings. The discussion will be accompanied by items from AAA's Collection, which includes publications, artwork documentation, and other primary source material.
Registration
Free admission. Registration is required.
Teachers from all disciplines, including visual arts, liberal studies, history, and cultural educators are welcome. No prior knowledge of art is required.
Students and general public are also welcome to join the talk.
©Estate of Rummana Hussain Courtesy Talwar Gallery New York / New Delhi
Sneha Ragavan is Researcher at Asia Art Archive in India. She oversees the Bibliography of Modern and Contemporary Art Writing project. She holds a MA in Art History and Aesthetics from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda. Ragavan recently submitted her PhD thesis on twentieth century architectural modernisms in India to the Department of Cultural Studies, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
Learning & Participation Programme Sponsor:
