The five grantees who will be performing at ‘Art, Unfettered’.
In October 2022, the Chennai-based Sumanasa Foundation that comprises seven members, and is helmed by musician, activist and author T. M. Krishna, announced the Grants Project.
The announcement urged artistes – across disciplines, genres and gender — to submit an idea that allowed them to step out of their comfort zones and re-imagine the practice, performance, content and presentation of their art. The call to action was for artistes to journey with the idea and create work that engaged with contemporary and dynamic ideologies. In turn, the Foundation offered to support the artistic process of the grantees, financially and with resources.
Following the screening process, five grantees from the 150 who applied from across India, were selected early last year.
Radhika Joshi, Manjeet Sarkar, Amith K, Shalu Ma and Thilagavathi Palani will present ‘Art, Unfettered’ that premieres over two evenings on March 2 (6 p.m.) and March 3 (5p.m.) at the MS Subbulakshmi auditorium at the Asian College of Journalism campus in Chennai.
Pune-based Hindustani musician Radhika Joshi explored the notion of lyrics in classical music, and created compositions that were a departure from the predominantly sringar rasa of this form of music. “I have always been thinking about poetry, and some of it seems so obsolete now,” she says. In her performance, she will present pieces on adoption, dislocation and border disputes. Radhika acknowledges the project offers an artiste both freedom and flexibility.
Says T. M. Krishna, the idea of the Grants Project came from a space to create and nurture a support system in the performing arts, for artistes who have an idea outside of the regular framework of presentation, and are keen to look at their own arts critically through the lens of society, culture and self.
Take, for instance, filmmaker Divya Bharathi, artist and muralist Girija Hariharan and Dalit transwoman, activist and Karagam performer Shalu Ma, whose work-in-progress, Shalu Ma, is also a part of ‘Art, Unfettered’. A unique multimedia artwork that uses the metaphor of body painting to celebrate trans-bodies, Shalu Ma questions trans-politics through music and film. As a year-long project that still has three weeks to find full fruition – the audience will watch a 20-minute-long work-in-progress. “Over and above all,” Divya says, “It will allow audiences a peek into the resilience of Shalu Ma; their ability to rise tall despite all the challenges life throws their way.”
Returning home from Natanakairali in Kerala’s Irinjalakuda, Mohiniyattam artiste and PhD student, Amith K gears up to present his work that centres around the notion of “conversation” between a man and a woman, and is a personal work driven by the artiste’s fascination with the heterogeneous nature of dialogues.
Amith adds: “While grants like these are really needed, I am also thinking about how, as a Mohiniyattam artiste, I have to create work that is out-of-the-box to draw attention to myself and the form; and that sometimes seems like a burden.”