Karkhana: A Studio in Rajasthan

Karkhana

A Studio in Rajasthan

Waswo X. Waswo Foreword by Giles Tillotson and Introduction by Annapurna Garimella

A Studio in RajasthanKarkhana

Karkhana takes us on a meandering journey through the Rajasthani city

Karkhana

of Udaipur as we follow American artist Waswo X. Waswo, a twenty-year A Studio in Rajasthan A well-known figure of the Indian art scene, Waswo X. Waswo was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the USA. He studied resident of India, through a typical day of collaborations with a variety at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, The Milwaukee Center for Photography, and Studio Marangoni, The Centre for Contemporary Photography in Florence, Italy. The artist has lived and travelled in India for over twenty years, and has made his home in Udaipur, Rajasthan, for the past sixteen. There he collaborates with a variety of local artists, exploring themes that range from serious portraiture and “mock ethnography” of Indian artists. From miniature painters such as R. Vijay and Dalpat to deep mediations on the mutually intertwining nature of “Otherness”. In his art and writings, he often assumes the role of “The Evil Orientalist”. His books include, India Poems: The Photographs, published by Gallerie Publishers in 2006, Men of Rajasthan, published by Serindia Contemporary in 2011 (hardcover 2014), Photowallah published by Tasveer, India, in Jingar, to the third-generation photo hand-colourist Rajesh Soni, to the 2016, and Gauri Dancers, published by Mapin, India, in 2019. He is represented by Gallery Espace and Gallery Latitude 28, both in New Delhi. phenomenally skilled painter of golden borders, Shankar Kumawat, we are treated to an intimate look behind the scenes of Waswo’s extended network of co-creators, as well as the photography studio he uses in the outlying village of Varda.

Waswo and his team weave visual narratives that blend vintage miniature painting techniques with digital photography, the past with the present, and a self-effacing humour with existential angst. Karkhana is a word that literally means “factory” in Hindi, but has lineage to the historical painting workshops of Persia.

This book explores the continuance of this system of mutual artistic collaboration within a contemporized Indian community, and the manner in which Waswo’s unlikely team has come into the contemporary art market.

Waswo X. Waswo is a photographer and writer, noted for his chemical process sepia-toned photographs of India, and also hand-coloured portraits made at his studio in Udaipur, Rajasthan. He has lived in India for more than two decades and has had a long and fruitful collaboration with a variety of artists skilled in Indian miniature painting techniques.

WASWO X. WASWO

modern & contemporary art

248 pages, 203 colour and 4 b/w illustrations 10 x 11” (254 x 279 mm), hc

ISBN: 978-93-85360-99-2 ₹2950 | $60 | £45 March 2022 |

“...his [Waswo’s] new book Karkhana: A Studio in Rajasthan captures the multiplicity of his life and work here. At times it’s a photo book that recounts his oeuvre; sometimes it’s a travelogue that whisks us off to Udaipur where he is based; then it transitions into an autobiography, as Waswo reflects on the spirit of collaboration that has fuelled his decades-long practice.” —Ritupriya Basu, Architectural Digest