Sheba Chhachhi transforms contemporary concerns into lens-based works of art. Her works investigate questions of gender, ecology, violence and visual culture, with particular emphasis on the recuperation of cultural memory. Chhachhi began in the 1980s, both activist and photographer, documenting the women’s movement in India. By the 1990s, Chhachhi moved to creating collaborative staged photographs, eventually turning to large photo based multimedia installations. Chhachhi often draws on premodern thought and visual traditions, interweaving the mythic and the social and experiments across the spectrum of durational mediums, from pre-cinematic animated lightboxes to interactive virtual reality. Chhachhi creates immersive environments, bringing the contemplative into the political in both site-specific public art and independent works. She has exhibited widely and participated in numerous international biennales, triennales, and museum exhibitions. Most recently, (2013-2011) her work has been presented at Grand Curtis Museum, Belgium, the 9^th Gwangju Biennale, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Greece, Kiran Nadar Museum, Delhi, and Singapore Art Museum.

ESSAYS

Arc, Silt, Dive

by Sheba Chhachhi

Lata Mani: I want to begin by thanking Sheba for giving me the privilege of living with this book for the last couple of weeks, for the chance to reflect on an extraordinary body of work, prodigious in its scope and in the scale of experimentation. Let’s start with the book. How did it come to fruition?

Dowsing Delhi

by Alexander Keefe

Finally I took a walk alone to the Levee. I wanted to sit on the muddy bank and dig the Mississippi River; instead of that I had to look at it with my nose against a wire fence. When you start separating the people from their rivers what have you got? “Bureaucracy!” says Bill.

- On The Road:

Sheba Chhachhi

Arc, Silt, Dive

Dowsing Delhi

NOTICEBOARD

RECOMMENDED