Open Day – Sonam Chaturvedi and Archana Das
July 12, 2017 I Utsha Foundation For Contemporary Art, VR-39, Bhubaneswar, Odisha
Archana Das and Sonam Chaturvedi explored the rich cultural heritage of Bhubaneswar and immersed themselves in the peaceful surroundings of Utsha Foundation to develop their practice. Archana, a printmaker by training, explored how in today’s world familiar objects from her childhood have lost their characteristics and purpose . She used prints and mixed media to display these ideas. Sonam used video to display the concept of timelessness and how the surroundings of Utsha have resonated with her on this. She used mixed media scattered over the grounds to outline her journey via found objects that she had collected along the Mumbai coast that served as event markers of the past.
About the artists
Sonam Chaturvedi is an intermedia artist based in New Delhi. Her practice spans through various niches broadly involving experiential, immersive, psychological experiments questioning the constructs of Time and Memory. They materialise through immersive video installations, film-essay, sound, found objects, artist’s books, automated-calling system and instruction-based art, amongst others. She has an MFA from Shiv Nadar University and has participated in various art exhibitions and residencies including, Imagined Futures Reconstructed Pasts curated by Meera Menezes at Bikaner House, apple in dream mode curated by John Xaviers at Mumbai Art Room, Random Variables curated by Ushmita Sahu at WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Winnipeg, Canada and Artist-residency at Kammari Residency, Cyprus, among others. She is presently teaching at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat.
Archana Das earned her BVA from B. K. College of Art & Crafts in Bhubaneswar, Odisha and M.F.A from S.N School, Hyderabad. Her significant group shows include 36th State Level Art Exhibition, Odisha Lalit Kala Akademi, 2015, 5 th All India Art Exhibition Organised By Gulbarga Academi, Karnataka, 2016. She has been awarded with East Zone City Award by PRAFULLA Foundation in 2016, State Level City Award in Printmaking by UTKAL Bharati Chitrakala
Academy (Jaipur) in 2015, to name a few.