Writing Initiatives

Such Immensity on My Plate: An Invocation to Play, Prod, Provoke

Khorshed Deboo

Khorshed Deboo is an independent writer and text editor living between Bombay and Landour. She writes on art and culture, and enjoys making photographs. Her writing has featured in Himal Southasian, Scroll, The Caravan, Frontline, Architectural Digest, and Design Reviewed London among other publications. As text editor, she has worked with organisations such as Domus India magazine, RMA Architects and The Charles Correa Foundation. She has written the text accompanying artist Harsh Nambiar’s exhibition of paintings, Improbable Being/ Unlikely Realm (Anant Art, 2023). Since April 2024, Khorshed has been a Copy Editor at Art India magazine and The Locavore.

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We Call It a Grain of Sand: Surfacings of the Sub - Political

Ankan Kazi

Ankan Kazi is a writer, researcher and translator based out of Kolkata. His writings on art, literature and culture have previously appeared in The Wire, The Caravan, Jamini, and ASAP Connect.

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What Are We Waiting For and How?

Kathakali Jana

Kathakali Jana is the head of administration and events at a reputed arts organisation and a dance critic for over two decades. She engages critically and deeply with the movement arts in multiple ways, not the least of which is facilitating dance appreciation workshops for different demographics.

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Ingenious Adjacencies: Bamboo on the Borderlands

Sarita Sundar

Sarita Sundar Sarita Sundar is a designer and design historian, leading Hanno, a heritage interpretation and design consultancy. Her work critically examines culture’s visual engagement, from Indian vernacular typography to performance practices. Her recent publication, “From the Frugal to the Ornate: Stories of the Seat in India,” explores the cultural journey of seating in India. Sarita holds degrees from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad (1990), and the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (2016). Sarita received a Fulbright fellowship to research the intersectional design histories between India and the United States (2022-23) and an Arts Research and Documentation Grant from the India Foundation for the Arts to study Poothan Thira, a ritual performance from Kerala (2015).

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Travelling Through Time, Space, and Form: the Indian Art Publication

Sucheta Chakraborty

Sucheta Chakraborty is a Mumbai-based journalist and writer, working primarily in the areas of cinema and popular culture, literature, art and Indian classical dance. Her writing has appeared in publications like The Hindu, Firstpost, Scroll, The Indian Quarterly, The Bangalore Review, ASAP | art, Critical Collective, MUBI, Senses of Cinema, Bright Wall/Dark Room, CineVue, and Offscreen, among others. She has worked as a Features Writer with Sunday Mid-Day, and continues to cover books, dance, art and films for the paper. She is the co-author of a monograph on the Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI) published by HarperCollins India in 2018. Sucheta has also worked with the editorial teams at The Marg Foundation, Oxford University Press, and Routledge India.

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‘Shakti’ & ‘Damaru’: Choreographies of Collaborations

Kuzhali Jaganathan

Kuzhali Jaganathan is a writer and curator at Museum of Art & Photography, Bengaluru. A postgraduate from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, she has previously worked with cultural institutions such as Serendipity Arts Foundation and India Art Fair. Her research and writings focus on representation of women in visual culture and performance traditions, and histories and development of culture industries. Her writings have been featured in Hakara Journal, Critical Collective, Write | Art | Connect, among others.

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Black Box, White Cube: Making a Case for Video-based Art Projects with Fields of Forces

Ankita Ghosh

Ankita Ghosh is a writer-researcher based in Mumbai. With a background in media and cultural studies, she approaches art via its intersections with popular culture, political actualities, and dynamics of power. Her primary area of interest lies in probing alternative lens-based media practices emerging out of the subcontinent. She has previously written for ASAP | art, Take on Art, Paper Planes, India Art Fair, and Sahapedia. She is presently employed with Asia Society India, where she supports arts and culture programming focused on India and South Asia.

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Spiral Epistemologies: New Forms for the Public

Srajana Kaikini

Srajana Kaikini (PhD) is a philosopher, curator, and artist who writes and researches on various topics in metaphysics, aesthetics, curatorial studies, arts pedagogy, kinship and relations, philosophy of language, philosophy of art, image, cinema and space. She has been curating and publishing for over a decade, and is presently working on her forthcoming book with Routledge. She teaches at SIAS, Krea University and is based between Bangalore, Mumbai, and Chennai.

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‘Ashokavanikankam’ through the Performative Lens of Koodiyattam

Samyukta Ninan

Samyukta Ninan is a free-spirited cultural and heritage enthusiast who travels widely, documenting the tangible and intangible traditions of India. She is training to be a Bharatnatyam dancer and has blended her interest in the cultural and performative traditions of India with her own training as a dancer. As a storyteller and educator, Samyukta does heritage walks for young heritage enthusiasts and has also trained and mentored students in the same. She experiments with the performing arts in her pedagogical practices as an educator.

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Public, Private, Political: Lens-Based Media at SAF 2023

Malavika Madgulkar

Malavika Madgulkar is a writer and editor based in Delhi.

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Recounting the Music Histories of Goa

Arti Das

Arti Das is a freelance journalist based in Panaji, Goa. She writes about art, culture, and ecology for various local, national, and international publications. Her work has been published in The Guardian, Atlas Obscura, South China Morning Post, The Hindu, Scroll.in, Mongabay-India, and more. She is also a founding member of Eco Treks Goa, a Goabased trekking group that promotes eco-conscious trekking, and a cultural group called Dhaee Aakhar Goa that conducts various literary events.

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A ‘Subversive Public Service’: The Packet and HOLY FLUX!

Nathalie Johnston

Nathalie Johnston is an internationally recognized scholar of performance art and contemporary art history. She is an independent curator who specialises in contemporary art from Southeast Asia, and recently expanding her research and work in South Asia and Saudi Arabia. In 2016, she founded Myanm/art, an independent exhibition space, archive, and library located in Yangon, Myanmar, dedicated to promoting exchange, opportunities, and inclusion for artists from a multiplicity of backgrounds.

Her work is published in Frieze Magazine, Art Review Asia, The Art Newspaper, Art Asia Pacific, Nikkei Asia Review, and numerous international exhibition and art fair catalogues. Her essay ‘Homegrown: the origins of performance art in Myanmar’, appears in Curating Art, recently published by Routledge.

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In the Calloused Hands of the Artisans, the Performance Tradition Thrives

Sreelakshmi Prakash

Sreelakshmi Prakash is a freelance writer and cultural enthusiast with a keen interest in documenting the rich heritage of disappearing crafts, communities, people, and practices. Apart from being a full-time corporate communications professional, she writes extensively about art, culture, craft, and communities. Several of her works are featured in the People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), where she explores the intricate traditions and communities that shape the regional cultural landscape. Her writing delves deep into the nuances of both rural and urban life, capturing the essence of age-old crafts and the compelling stories of the artisans who sustain them.

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The Art of Storytelling through Puppets: Kerala's Tholpavakoothu and Pavakathakali Traditions

Muthukumaraswamy MD

Dr. M.D. Muthukumaraswamy has been working as the Director of National Folklore Support Centre, Chennai from its inception in 1997. He has been invited to lecture in many universities in India and abroad, and he has held senior visiting professorships in Wurzburg University, Germany and University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His publications include ‘Folklore as Discourse’, ‘Folklore, Public Sphere, and Civil Society’, ‘Voicing Folklore: Careers, Concerns, and Issues’, ‘One Nation Many Voices’, and ‘Seraikella Chhau’. He edits Indian Folklore Research Journal and Indian Folklife. As a Tamil writer, he has published poetry, short stories, critical essays and plays. His published works in Tamil include poetry, dramatic monologues, and plays. He is currently engaged in writing semiotic analysis for Kurnthogai, ancient Tamil classical poems.

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A Haven for Sustainable Design: The Mercado at Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa

Insia Lacewalla

Insia Lacewalla is a prolific travel and food writer based out of Goa and curates bespoke F&B related events. With a diverse professional journey spanning over 17 years, Insia’s expertise traverses the realms of film, television, indie music, food and beverage, and the ever-evolving world of hospitality. Her meticulously curated guides provide a passport to unique and immersive experiences in India via her company, India with Insia. She is also the founder and driving force behind “W.E”, a membership-based club and community for women empowerment in Goa.

Insia sits on the jury of the Conde Nast Traveller Top Restaurant Awards and 30 Best Bars. She also curates Food & Beverage for an array of festivals around the country.

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A New Generation of Dance

Veena Basavarajaiah

Veena Basavarajaiah is a Bangalore based movement artist who has created works in collaboration with dancers, theatre artists, film makers, scientists, musicians, and visual artists. Her independent works have been presented in various national and international festivals. In theatre, she has worked as an actor, movement director, and directed plays and devised works. She has written several essays and critiques about South Asian Dance. She is a self taught illustrator who uses cartoons to articulate the politics of the art field @Cartoon_Natyam on Instagram.

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Listening In

Kamayani Sharma

Kamayani Sharma is a writer, podcaster and translator with a focus on visual art, culture and media. A former text editor with Art India and researcher with Sarai-CSDS, she currently develops and manages the audio content programme for Sharjah Art Foundation. Sharma contributes critical and creative writing to publications worldwide, including a popular monthly series for Scroll.in. She was a finalist at the International Awards for Art Criticism 2020, selected for the Momus Emerging Critics Residency 2021 and won the RedInk Award 2023 for print journalism in the Arts. In 2024, she curated her first exhibition, Mumkin Zameen at Niv Art Centre, New Delhi. Sharma runs ARTalaap, South Asia’s first independent visual culture podcast (Instagram: @art.alaap).

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Look in All Directions!

Annalisa Mansukhani

Annalisa Mansukhani is a writer, researcher and curator studying histories of photography and notions of the image in contemporary art and curatorial practices. She has previously worked at the Kochi Biennale Foundation, and is one of the recipients of the first Critical Collective-PhotoSouthAsia Young Writers Award for lens-based practices. Annalisa is a contributing writer for ASAP | art where she dissects possibilities of the photographic in contemporary inter-media practices. As the Programmes Manager for the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in Delhi, she establishes frameworks and activates resources around art and research, spaces of exhibition, critical writing, editorial and public programming. She is currently fascinated by narrative forms, vocabularies of memory and trauma, and the poetic as a sensibility across mediums in art.

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