Anindya Sen in Conversation with Shivangi Ladha
Shivangi Ladha is an India based artist who specializes in printmaking. Her work has been exhibited internationally at the Printmaker’s Assembly, STPI Gallery, Singapore 2020, Art on Paper Fair, E/AB Art Fair, New/Prints, IPCNY (New York), Art Rooms Fair (London) and Serendipity Art Festival (Goa) among others. Her works are in permanent collections at The British Museum, V&A Museum, RCA’s Print Archives, East London Printmaker’s Archive, Mead Museum and Snap Studio’s Archive. They have also been published in Art in Print Journal, USA, Art Soul Life Magazine and Platform Magazine, India.
Made in Bed’s Anindya Sen interviews Shivangi about her creative journey so far, her experiences with art residencies and her recent and upcoming projects.
Anindya Sen: You began your art studies in New Delhi, and then moved to the United Kingdom to first study at Wimbledon, and then at Royal College of Art (RCA) where you earned your MA. Can you tell us a bit about your journey as an artist and what made you focus on printmaking?
Shivangi Ladha: Since childhood, I found art to be the most authentic way to express myself. All my friends and relatives would always gift me colour pencils and sketchbooks. My parents also encouraged me to pursue the field of art professionally. Therefore, I decided to do my BFA in painting from College of Art, Delhi.
During my time in Wimbledon I started to find my own voice as an artist. I purposefully pushed the boundaries of my drawing in as many ways as I could, while simultaneously exploring varied media like animation, performance art, installations and printmaking. I realised that printmaking was what best suited my expression. It felt like a natural extension of drawing. So, I decided to pursue it further and did my MA in Printmaking from Royal College of Art, London.
Printmaking has various techniques such as etching, lithography and screen printing. Every technique propels you towards the creation of beautiful lines and textures. And every line carries a particular human emotion. The whole printmaking process has truly inspired me. It is experimental, magical, unpredictable and repetitive at the same time. Like life itself!
Repetition also works like meditation for me. I repeat the same task again and again. I sit every day in the same position to meditate, repeat the same process while trying to reach a state of nothingness. I have discovered that repetition acts as a force that can transcend us and carry us to another dimension altogether.
Self Portrait, Screenprint, Drawing, Ink, Masking Tape on Japanese Paper, 40.15 X 56.2 inches, Acquired by the Mead Museum, Massachusetts, 2017.
AS: Within the realm of visual art, compared to a painter or a sculptor, what are the challenges that a printmaker has to face? What makes your practice and studio work as a printmaker interesting?
SL: Printmaking requires a certain set of resources and working conditions like an etching press, aquatint box and an acid area with exhausts. For an independent artist to have this setup, it can be expensive, hence the need for shared infrastructure of studios. Print studios not only provide infrastructure, but also a chance to build strong connections with fellow artists. Printmaking involves a lot of team work. Everyone has to help each other to make things work. One needs a strong work ethic, organizational skills, genuine love for the studio, and to be able to work amicably together in a studio setting.
The creativity that goes into printmaking is not well understood and not appreciated fully. This also leads to lesser opportunities for artists practicing in this medium. Hence, I founded the India Printmaker House, where the mission is to educate individuals about the print medium and help young artists financially by enabling them with residencies and grants.
AS: Your recent works are based on the heart-rending survivor stories of acid attack victims. What moved you about their stories and encouraged you to make them a part of your practice?
SL: My first direct exposure to the issue happened by chance when I met an acid attack victim for the first time at the Sheroes Hangout Café in Agra (the city where the Taj Mahal is located). It is a social activism café that champions their cause and employs acid attack survivors.
Acid attacks are a heinous act [often] upon women victims, likely to be caused as a vengeful act perpetrated by a man when a woman does not respond to their advances. The first question that struck my mind when I saw her was, ‘how could a person carry out such a violent act against another human being?’ It was also a very disturbing realisation to feel her plight – how the action had left a permanent scar on the face of the survivor - a constant, physical reminder of the trauma she had experienced and then had to face the world with. The only remedy is plastic surgery which can be very painful and expensive and many cannot afford it. While I was outraged to the core, I also found myself in awe of the courage of the survivors and felt a deep compassion towards them.
Acid Attack Survivor, Etching, Chine-colle’ on Hahnemuhle Paper, 16 ½ X 12 ½ inches, 2018.
I started researching more on the subject. South Asia seemed to be one of the most affected geographies globally. Since the 1990s, Bangladesh has been reporting the highest number of acid attacks, with 3,512 people reported to have been attacked with acid between 1991 and 2013, while Pakistan and India have also seen a rise in attacks. Unfortunately, there are not many stringent laws in India that prevent such attacks and acid is very easily available to purchase. The UK has one of the highest rates of acid attacks per capita in the world, according to Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI).
I decided to interview the survivors so that I could understand what they went through and the impact of the trauma in their lives. Many shared their deeply traumatic stories about how they were abandoned by family and friends, and the tragedy of living in a world that judged them on their appearance and was not very kind or empathetic to them.
While they expressed their feelings, I tried to give shape to their emotions in the form of my drawings by etching their portraits onto zinc plates. In the portrait series, I have used acid as an agent of creation rather than a tool of destruction to bring out the beauty that is within each of those survivors. With these prints, my aim is to raise awareness about the domestic abuse and violence that these women had to face and that many women continue to face in the world today.
Acid Attack Survivor, Etching, Chine-colle’ on Hahnemuhle Paper, 16 ½ X 12 ½ inches, 2018.
Acid Attack Survivor, Etching, Chine-colle’ on Hahnemuhle Paper, 16 ½ X 12 ½ inches, 2018.
AS: You have been part of a few reputed art residencies in the last three years, spanning the US, Canada and most recently in 2019, London. How do you think residencies help at this stage in an emerging artist’s journey and growth? What have been your takeaways and cherished memories?
SL: As an India-based artist, my exposure to the international art world developments and the ability to develop my practice with a global perspective would have been severely undermined if I had not been able to participate in these residencies.
I am also seeking to experience and explore new art forms, mediums and techniques. I am grateful to have met established artists like Justin Sanz and Devraj Dakoji at Black Burn Studio, NY, for example, who taught me new print techniques which I have now incorporated in my art practice. Back home as a teacher, I also share this knowledge with other young Indian artists.
[The benefits] of residencies are not just limited to the access to studio space and interactions with fellow artists. They also provide a chance for the resident to explore the wider cultural aspects of the place they are in. During my residency at SNAP Studio in Edmonton, I visited Canada’s first indigenous art park, which has been built on the ancestral lands of the Indigenous people there. I found the outdoor exhibition to be a fantastic example of inclusion and an important step towards acknowledging the history of the country and its people. It left a lasting impression in my mind.
My other two residencies were in New York City and London which are the two capitals of the art world globally, and gave me a golden opportunity to explore museums and galleries, attend exhibition openings and discover new artists in a way that no other city can [allow]. During my time at East London Printmakers, I got the chance to participate in the ‘Festival of Print 2019’ exhibition, which gave me the platform to show the works to a new audience and make new connections. I was also fortunate to meet the curator of the Prints Department at The British Museum, who invited me to study the prints of some great masters like Goya, Kathy Kollwitz and many more. These are some of my most cherished experiences!
Shivangi working during her residency at the East London Printmakers Studio (2019).
AS: Many of your works have been acquired by prominent institutions, including the British Museum. Can you share which institutions and how it happened?
SL: My residence at the International Print Centre, New York in 2018, which culminated in a group exhibition, was a turning point in my career. It provided me with opportunities to be a part of some important fairs like E/AB Print Fair, Art on Paper Fair, New York and Art Rooms Fair, London.
The first acquisition of my work happened from [one of] those shows and was by the Mead Museum, Massachusetts. This was followed by the acquisition of my work, on the ‘Acid Attack’ series, by The British Museum, London- it is now featured in their permanent collection. A few of my other prints are also in the collection othe V&A Museum in London, SNAP Studio in Canada and at the East London Printmakers.
Acid Attack Survivor, Etching, Chine-colle’ on Hahnemuhle Paper, 16 ½ x 12 ½ inches each, 8 Unique Prints, Acquired by The British Museum, 2018.
‘Friends of Prints & Drawings’ Exhibition at the British Museum, London, 2019.
AS: Tell us about your current project that you are working on. What has been the inspiration, how is it developing and what are you trying to convey? Also, have you received any support in terms of grants to develop it?
SL: My current project under development is ‘Becoming Tree II’ and it was inspired by my visit to Piplantri, a village in Rajasthan. The village has a unique and progressive tradition of planting 111 trees for every female child born. Another major inspiration is the Chipko Movement, which happened in the 1970s in North India. Chipko means ‘to embrace’ in Hindi. It was a powerful non-violent protest based on Gandhian philosophies where villagers joined hands and ‘embraced’ their trees to prevent them from being felled for commercial purposes. It was a movement where women played the leading role and it created a lot of awareness at that time about the need to protect our environment.
I have received a production grant from Experimenter Gallery in Kolkata, India, to create a series of large-scale prints and drawings. The works will question the true identity of our human race. The self-portraits in the work will not be a depiction of my being or individual experiences, but will represent the voice of the collective consciousness. A crowd seeking to rise, become, transcend to a state or a place where one is appreciated just the way they are. Just as if they were trees, who could not be differentiated by humans on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, religion, caste, creed, disability and class. The intention of my work will be to raise awareness and spring consciousness in others about their own existence. It will provide others with a different perspective on the concept of identity, which will not be based on constraints of the mind.
Becoming Tree Series, Monoprint on Hahnemuhle Paper, 30.7 X 20.8 inches.
AS: What are your future plans? How would you like to develop your practice and career as an artist?
SL: I just want the creative momentum in myself to keep on growing and not be affected by Covid-19, so that I can continue making works with a voice that is impactful. The ability to have my own studio space with access to a [printing] press can certainly provide me with that opportunity. I have been thinking a lot about the potential relationship between printmaking and new media installations, and how they can be merged. It is something I want to develop and experiment further with to see where it can take me as an artist. Life as an artist can be very uncertain, so I don’t have any big plans as such, but the idea is to live one day at a time and give my best at what I love doing.
Thank You, Shivangi.
Imagery courtesy of the artist.
For more information on Shivangi Ladha and her work, visit her website.
Anindya Sen,
Contributor, MADE IN BED