Indianama
Client
Indianama, New Delhi, India
Curated annually by Animal, a New Delhi-based creative agency, Indianama is an exhibit that brings together artists who use the mediums of graphic art, paintings, and even motion graphics and document the events and stories that shaped the country to its present avatar. Animal invites 69-70 artists each year to create work and express their refreshing take on India.
2020: INDIA ENFORCES CENSORSHIP THROUGH A NATIONAL FIREWALL
Venue: Alliance Française, New Delhi, India
The 2019 edition of Indianama was about creating pieces that brushed upon a rather interesting theme, historic twists in India-the what ifs, the maybes. A lot has been written and said about India, its incredible diversity, and its storied history. But the India we see today wasn’t so easily made. So the 2019 edition took a look back at how India got here —politically, economically, culturally, and uncategorizably. By taking some historical moments and exploring what might have happened if those events panned out differently.
Cinema, Censor, and Politics
In a series of attempts by the Indian Government to cleanse the culture, the administrators have decided to ban the use of English and make Hindustani the national language. The effects of this censorship are seen in the Hindi Film Industry, where filmmakers are changing the names of movies with English words to Hindi names to appease the administrators. This poster shows how this censorship regulation can lead to a situation where popular cinema starts looking like exploitation cinema. It can be challenging to differentiate between a controversial political statement and the low-budget movie titles.
Collaborator
Shreya Kathuri
2017: A MILLION TONGUES
Venues: New Delhi (India), London Design Festival (UK), New York City (USA), Muncie, Indiana (USA), and Jerusalem Design Week (Jerusalem)
A Million Tongues visual represents the million eclectic languages that India holds within itself. We took inspiration from the Indian matchbox art – an art form that offers insight into the diverse culture, commerce, art, politics, and lifestyle of Indians. If you dig deeper, you’ll notice that every box, similar to every state in India, has a different story. While developing the concept for this artwork, we tried to focus on various languages spoken across each Indian state and hoped to create a dialogue that serves a dual purpose. Firstly, we wanted to bring attention to the diversity in the multitude of languages. And secondly, we wanted to acknowledge how each of the Indian states is different in their ways, yet the distinctive style of the matchbox art brings them together. While these numerous languages play an influential role in defining India, they also pave the way for a million possibilities.
