ARTS COUNCIL REPORT 2017–2018
1 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Cover Credit: Faiham Ebna Sharif, Modern Day Bonded Labor Visiting Artist 2017-18
Table of Contents
08
ABOUT THE ARTS AT THE MITTAL INSTITUTE
09
VISITING ARTISTS PROGRAM
17
GRANTS
20
EVENTS
27
BUDGET
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 3
Our Mission The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University (The Mittal Institute) engages faculty and students through interdisciplinary programs to advance and deepen the teaching and research on global issues relevant to South Asia. 4 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
From the chair
Dear Friends, Given your longstanding support of South Asian art and your networks within that community, the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute (The Mittal Institute), Harvard University is fortunate to have you as supporters and advisors. I would love to see more individuals deepen their engagement with Harvard as time goes on.
“The goals are dual — to provide mentorship to visiting scholars and artists, and through a cross-fertilization of ideas, to develop a deeper understanding of South Asia and its artistic traditions, both historical and contemporary.” -Dipti Mathur
The opportunity that the Mittal Institute provides visiting artists and scholars is not a traditional residency. It is an opportunity to engage with leading scholars and thinkers in almost any discipline of their choosing in deep and authentic ways, and to expand their horizons in directions they might not have imagined before visiting Harvard. The goals are dual — to provide mentorship to visiting scholars and artists, and through a crossfertilization of ideas, to help develop a deeper understanding of South Asia and its artistic traditions, both historical and contemporary. It is an incredibly exciting time at the Institute. The $25M endowment by the Mittal family has given Harvard an opportunity to expand and deepen its already rich programming related to South Asia. But even before this, Harvard has tremendous in-house expertise - offering over 140 South Asia-related courses. There is a lot going on with South Asian art at the Mittal Institute. I invite you to read more about it in this report. Sincerely, Dipti Mathur Chair, Arts Council The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 5
About The Mittal Institute The Mittal Institute’s administration of staff and students, based both in Cambridge and South Asia, supports The Mittal Institute’s mission and its day-to-day operations.
CAMBRIDGE STAFF
INDIA STAFF
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE TEAM (SHARED WITH OTHER ASIARELATED CENTERS)
Tarun Khanna
Sanjay Kumar
Sarah Gordon
Director; Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, HBS
India Country Director
Director of Finance and Administration
Meena Sonea Hewett
Farhana Siddiqui
Maryam Mirza Alivandi
Executive Director
Staff Assistant, Delhi
Financial Associate
Abanish Rizal
Garima Aggarwal,
Karen Christopher
Assistant Director
Finance Manager, Delhi
Financial Associate
Jee Soo Kang
Savitha Ananth
Program Coordinator
Kathryn Maldonis
Science Program Coordinator, Bangalore
Senior Financial Associate
Amy Johnson Communications and Outreach Coordinator
IN-REGION SUPPORT
CAMBRIDGE OFFICE STUDENT COORDINATORS
Emma Fitzgerald
Mariam Chughtai
Kelsang Donyo,
Administrative Assistant
Programs Director, Pakistan
Harvard College '19
Hasit Shah
Pukar Malla
Sheliza Jamal
Communications Affiliate
Programs Director, Nepal
EdM Candidate, HGSE '18
Sneha Shrestha Arts at The Mittal Institute Project Manager
Satish Wasti, Harvard College '21 (September - December 2017)
Anushka Ghosh EdM Candidate, HGSE '18 (February 2018 - current)
6 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
The Mittal Institute Board comprises of the Advisory Council and Arts Council. As a team of distinguished volunteer leaders, they provide strategic counsel and financial support to The Mittal Institute. Representing Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, the distinguished members of the Arts and Advisory Councils provide financial support and advisement. Friends of The Mittal Institute are individuals who invest in the Institute’s interfaculty projects, leveraging the resources and expertise of Harvard faculty to support research that has direct impact in the region.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION TO MR. LAKSHMI MIT TAL AND HIS FAMILY FOR A NAMING GIFT TO THE INSTITUTE
ARTS ADVISORY COUNCIL
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Jinah Kim (Faculty Lead)
Syed Babar Ali AMP ’73, Pakistan
Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University
Dipti Mathur (Chair) USA Shanay Jhaveri (Program Advisor) USA
KP Balaraj MBA ’97, India Sumir Chadha MBA ’97, USA Kuntala and Purandar Das USA
Archan Basu and Madeline Jie Wang (Incoming) USA
Jo Froman and Mark Fuller AB ’75, MBA ’78, JD ’79, USA
Poonam Bhagat India
Meera Gandhi USA
Anurag Bhargava India and USA
Vikram Gandhi MBA ’89, ExEd ’00, USA/India
Radhika Chopra India
Mala Haarmann AB ’91, MBA ’96, UK
Aparajita and Gaurav Jain India
Anuradha and Anand Mahindra AB ’77, MBA ’81, India
Sribala Subramanian and Arvind Raghunathan USA Rajiv and Anupa Sahney India Parul and Gaurav Swarup MBA ’80, India Tom Varkey MBA ’97 Arshad Zakaria AB ’85, MBA ’87, USA
FRIENDS OF THE MIT TAL INSTITUTE
Chandrika Pathak UK and India Pinky and Sanjay Reddy India Omar Saeed Pakistan Sana Rezwan Sait New York Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani Bangladesh Osman Khalid Waheed Pakistan
Karen, AB ’82, and Sanjeev Mehra, AB ’82, MBA ’86, USA Victor Menezes USA Arif Naqvi UAE Chandrika and Dalip Pathak UK
Anonymous Gobind Akoi, The Imperial Hotel, Delhi The Resource Group, c/o Nadeem Elahi Karachi, Pakistan Jeffrey Smith, Principal Shareholder, law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP USA Anwarul Quadir Foundation
Chandni and Mukesh Prasad AB ’93, USA
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 7
about the arts at The mittal institute
MISSION Arts at the Mittal Institute connects South Asia’s artists and curators with Harvard faculty and students to support research that advances the understanding of social, political, cultural and economic issues of the world through art.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM The Arts at the Mittal Institute program serves as a resource across all disciplines to explore critical issues in South Asia through the lens of art and design. The Visiting Artist program is funded by members of the Arts Council. These are individuals from across the globe, who are committed to the development and preservation of South Asian arts. The program selects four emerging or mid-career artists from South Asia, who come to the Mittal Institute and engage with faculty and students through talks, an exhibition, workshops and class visits. The Visiting Artist program has grown exponentially since its launch in 2015-2016. In the first year the program was supported by the contributions of five founding members. Funds raised this year supported four visiting artists to come to Harvard for one week to engage with faculty, students, and the community at large. Artists had access to the libraries and museums on campus and in New England. In 2016-2017, the program activities grew due to XX new members joining the council. The Visiting Artist program extended from one week to two weeks. This year, we are excited to share that the Arts program offered 4 artists 8 weeks of fellowship at Harvard, hosted the ACSAA conference, and offered travel grants to faculty and students. In addition, the Donald T. Regan Fund supports arts-based seminars at Harvard for faculty, students, and the larger community. These discussions are led by artists that have been invited on campus. The Arts at the Mittal Institute program is led by Professor Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.
GOALS FOR 2018-2019 In the new academic year we will continue to grow our Arts at the Mittal Institute activities. This will include: • • • • •
Hosting mid-career artists from across South Asia for a two-month fellowship at Harvard Advancing initial stages of a workshop on conservation of South Asian arts with leading art institutions in South Asia Developing a program on writing and documentation of South Asian arts Continuing to fund faculty and student research and travel grants Establishing a 'named' arts conference and/or seminar series
8 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
visiting artists Supported by the Arts Advisory Council and the Dean of the Division of Social Science’s Donald T. Regan Lecture Fund, The Mittal Institute’s Visiting Artist Program brings emerging artists from South Asia to Harvard’s campus to engage with Harvard students, faculty, and community members.
The 2018-2018 Visiting Artists on a Mittal Insitute organized trip to the Peabody Essex Museum A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 9
AY 2017-2018 Visiting Artists Artists
Detail of Past in Particles, Graphite on Paper
Bhakar, Ceramic, Red Chillies, Plastic
Fragments, Lithograph
SPRING 2018 IMRAN CHANNA
SPRING 2018 RAJYASHRI GOODY
SPRING 2018 KABI RAJ LAMA
PAKISTAN
INDIA
NEPAL
Imran Channa’s art practice interrogates the intersection between power and knowledge. His primary focus is on the documentation and dissemination of historical narratives and events. He explores how fabricated narratives can override our collective memory to shape individual and social consciousness and alter human responses. His work draws attention to the instruments of documentation, highlighting how photography, archeology, and literature record, frame and manufacture history. He is interested in how these modes pervert knowledge and the construction of consciousness.
Rajyashri Goody’s art practice revolves around the complexities of identity seen through the lens of larger social, political, economic, and religious structures at play, and consequently the tug between power and resistance that manifests itself within minority communities. Her interests lie within the interpretation of caste in India, particularly the strengthening voice of Dalit resistance since the 1920s. Caste-based discrimination is still very much alive in both urban and rural India, with crimes against Dalits such as rape, murder, beatings, and violence related to land matters committed approximately every 18 minutes. Yet, as Sharmila Rege put it, there is an “‘official forgetting’ of histories of caste oppression, struggles, and resistance.”
Kabi Raj Lama is a contemporary printmaker based in Kathmandu, who primarily works with lithography and the Japanese mokuhanga (woodcut) medium. His work examines themes of natural disasters, trauma, and religion. Lama sees the complexities of natural disasters as multidimensional — affecting both tangible and intangible worlds.
Images of the 1947 partition of Pakistan and India are the central motifs of his practice. He reworks historical images to forge new narratives, relocate historical truth, and interrogate the influence of subjectivity. Photographs are often the only ways of retracing the past for subsequent generations who did not experience events first-hand. They are paradoxical — containing the capacity to understand fact as well as create fiction.
Goody’s aim as an artist is to contest this “official forgetting” by drawing out both political and personal Dalit narratives and weaving them together to reflect upon everyday acts of resistance in the current sociopolitical climate of India. Her artworks, whether they take the form of installations, photography, or more recently, text and ceramics, often result from a series of conversations and interviews. One of her ongoing projects incorporates Dalit autobiographies, which contain vivid and complex descriptions of food, cooking, eating, and hunger. She highlights and recycles their extracts on food to create “recipes” from their own words, compiling a cookbook of sorts as an ode to everyday resistance and an act of resistance itself against “official forgetting.”
10 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
In 2016, Kabi Raj was away from his home at residencies in Germany and China, when the Great Earthquakes struck Nepal in 2015. The earthquakes killed 8,686, injured 16,808, rendered thousands homeless, and leveled heritage monuments and places of worship. Kabi’s prints made while in Germany and China are poignant narratives of memory and loss. His work explores what the earthquakes destroyed as well as what they revealed. One source of inspiration for Lama was the hidden sculptures from the inner sanctums of Kasthamandap, which the earthquake exposed to the public when the building came down. For one of Lama’s ongoing projects, he recently traveled to the Everest Region in an effort to capture the moment of the earthquake at the world highest peak. He prepared and carved wooden boards from which he has created several editions of prints.
AY 2017-2018 Visiting Artists Artists
Activities
Detail of Modern Day Bonded Labor, Photograph
A group of panelists and attendees examine citizenship
SPRING 2018 FAIHAM EBNA SHARIF
APRIL 3, 2018
APRIL 12, 2018
Citizenship of the Outcastes
Tea Tales of Bangladesh
Rajyashri Goody, Visiting Artist, The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University
Faiham Ebna Sharif, The Mittal Institute Visiting Artist
BANGLADESH Faiham Ebra Sharif is a freelance multimedia journalist and photographer, with several years of experience working as a reporter, newsroom editor and presenter in national electronic media. Sharif’s areas of research include colonialism, climate change, ethnic minorities, film, human rights, indigenous people, labor rights, migration, popular culture, refugees, Rohingya crisis, sports, tea industry and underprivileged children. He is involved with different cultural and political movements. Through his visual narratives and journalism, Sharif explores the lived-experiences of marginalized people both in South Asia and globally. His current project, Cha Chakra: Tea Tales of Bangladesh sheds light on the plight of the tea garden workers of Bangladesh who are among the lowest paid and most vulnerable laborers in the world yet are strangely invisible to the global media. Currently, the project concentrates on labor rights and conditions within Bangladesh’s tea industry, which are a direct result of a long history of colonialism and oppression. This project aims to collect the undocumented history of the global tea industry through photography, oral histories, and archival materials. While at Harvard, Sharif plans to continue his archival research and collect materials related to the global tea industry from Harvard’s libraries and museums. He will also photograph the tea culture in USA and spread awareness about the phenomenon though public events and publications.
Suraj Yengde, W.E.B. Du Bois Nonresident fellow, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Harvard University; Research Associate, Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University Raile Rocky Ziipao, Arvind Raghunathan and Sribala Subramanian South Asia Visiting Fellow, The Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute, Harvard University Chair: Sai Balakrishnan, Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Faiham Ebna Sharif discusses his work on tea workers
Chair: Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University The Mittal Institute Visiting Artist Faiham Ebra Sharif is a freelance multimedia journalist and photographer. He discussed his current project, Cha Chakra: Tea Tales of Bangladesh, which sheds light on the plight of the tea garden workers of Bangladesh who are among the lowest paid and most vulnerable laborers in the world, yet are strangely invisible to the global media. Co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
The panel discussed conceptions of “citizenship” in India as related to caste and indigeneity. The discussion was an opportunity to explore the ways that citizenship and belonging have been constructed through exclusion and marginalization based on social, political, and ethnic lines. Co-sponsored by the Committee on Ethnicity Migration and Rights (EMR) and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 11
AY 2017-2018 Visiting Artists
From left: Faiham Ebna Sharif, Rajyashri Goody, Kabi Raj Lama and Imran Channa discuss their art practice
Kabi Raj Lama creating a woodblock print
APRIL 17, 2018
APRIL 27, 2018
Visiting Artist Seminar: Revelations: Reclaiming South Asian Narratives
Japanese Woodblock Print Demonstration
The Mittal Institute Visiting Artists: Imran Channa, Rajyashri Goody, Kabi Raj Lama, and Faiham Ebna Sharif. Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Department of History of Art and Architecture This seminar marked the opening of exhibition “Revelations: Reclaiming South Asian Narratives”. The works of The Mittal Institute Visiting Artists Imran Channa, Rajyashri Goody, Kabi Raj Lama, and Faiham Ebna Sharif unravel challenging social issues that often fall outside of the limelight, and explore possibilities that lie in making traditionally invisible stories and narratives visible, from tea garden workers in Bangladesh; personal accounts of trauma and healing after disasters in Nepal; Dalit resistance in India; and the fallibility of memory during the Partition in Pakistan.
In collaboration with Harvard’s Bow and Arrow Press, The Mittal Institute's Artist in Residence Kabi Raj Lama led a three-hour demonstration and workshop on Japanese Woodcut Printmaking that was open to the public. The workshop began with Kabi Raj sharing his lithography and woodcut prints. He discussed his print-making journey and then demonstrated how to make prints by hand using water-based inks and a special tool. After the tutorial, participants were able to make their own print. The Visiting Artists Program is funded by The Mittal Institute Arts Council.
The Visiting Artists Program is funded by The Mittal Institute Arts Council.
12 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
AY 2016-2017 Visiting Artists Artists
Pearl Gouache, Gold and Gold—tinted Leaf on Wasli
Three Views of Mapping Huge Cloud
FALL 2016 KOMAL SHAHID KHAN
FALL 2016 MADHU DAS
SPRING 2017 MEENAKSHI SENGUPTA
BANGLADESH
INDIA
INDIA
Rabindra Shrestha is a Nepalese visual artist. Installation, detail pen and ink drawing, painting, traditional painting (Paubha), illustration, cartoon, and ceramic art are the different media of his visual expressions. Many people refer to him as a “Line Artist.” Shrestha’s work has been exhibited throughout the National Fine Art exhibition, Kochi-Muzirise Biennale 2014, India, and Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh. He secured the National Special Award (NAFA) from National Academy of Fine Arts, and was a winner of the US Embassy Art Competition, Nepal.
Madhu Das is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in Mumbai, India. His artistic practice is primarily concerned with the projection of identity onto the social and natural world, in a way that the two are woven together in the Indian space (both mythic space and actual). It explores both conceptual and material sensibilities through a range of media including drawing and painting, photography, performance, video, site-specific interventions, collaborative community projects and interactive/performative installations.
Meenakshi Sengupta is a visual artist, based in Kolkata, India. She holds a B.V.A. 2011 (Painting), from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India and a M.F.A. 2013 (Painting) with distinction (Gold Medal), from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, India.
During his time at Harvard, Shrestha held an interactive exhibition, titled “No War: We are all Connected,” where he created line drawings of the fingerprints of exhibition guests. He delivered a seminar, chaired by Professor Jinah Kim, to speak about the significance of his work in reflecting the uniqueness of individuals (represented by the fingerprints) as well as the similarities that bond us together.
Lady with a Red Rose, 2015 Gouache on Wasli Y.O.P.
Das received his Master of Arts (Painting) from S N School of Fine Arts and Communication, Central University of Hyderabad, India in 2013 and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Painting) from College of Fine Art, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishad, Bangaluru, India in 2009. In addition to visiting undergraduate courses, Das delivered a seminar “Landscape of Abstraction,” chaired by Susan Bean.
In her work, she uses traditional pictorial representation to push formal and aesthetic conventions producing new meaning by using wit and irony to explore gender identity and complexities in contemporary life. Sengupta shared her work through the seminar “Boys Don’t Cry,” chaired by Professor Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University. This talk focused on the celebration of womanhood and how Sengupta came to this work. She spoke about her practice and how she developed her language primarily surrounded by conventional art practice.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 13
AY 2016-2017 Visiting Artists Artists
Activities
Part of the No War: We are all Connected
Sengupta (right) at her seminar “Boys Don’t Cry”
Das (right) with Susan Bean, Jinah Kim, and a guest at his seminar “Landscape of Abstraction”
SPRING 2017 RABINDRA SHRESTHA
Sengupta and Khan visited several undergraduate classes where they were invited to speak about their work and engage with students.
Das, along with Rabindra Shrestha, attended several undergraduate classes and both shared their work with the students.
NEPAL
Rabindra Shrestha is a Nepalese visual artist. Installation, detail pen and ink drawing, painting, traditional painting (Paubha), illustration, cartoon, and ceramic art are the different media of his visual expressions. Many people refer to him as a “Line Artist.” Shrestha’s work has been exhibited throughout the National Fine Art exhibition, Kochi-Muzirise Biennale 2014, India, and Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh. He secured the National Special Award (NAFA) from National Academy of Fine Arts, and was a winner of the US Embassy Art Competition, Nepal. During his time at Harvard, Shrestha held an interactive exhibition, titled “No War: We are all Connected,” where he created line drawings of the fingerprints of exhibition guests. He delivered a seminar, chaired by Professor Jinah Kim, to speak about the significance of his work in reflecting the uniqueness of individuals (represented by the fingerprints) as well as the similarities that bond us together.
Courses included: • “History and Sexuality in the Modern West” taught by Nancy Cott, Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard University. • “Comparative Politics of Gender Inequality” taught by Ana Catalano Weeks, College Fellow in the Government Department, Harvard University. • “Gender and the Making of Modern South Asia,” taught by Catherine Warner, College Fellow in the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University. • “Leaning in, Hooking up: Visions of Feminism and Femininity in the 21st Century” taught by Phyllis Thompson, Lecturer on Studies on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University. Both Sengupta and Khan were also invited to the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies for an informal gathering with concentrators and affiliates.
14 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Courses included: • “Himalayan Art,” taught by Professor Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture South and Southeast Asian, Harvard University. • “Appearance and Reality” by Professor John Bengson, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University. • “Capitalism and Cosmology in Modern India” taught by Professor Shankar Ramaswami, Lecturer on South Asian Studies, Harvard University. • “Cultural Psychology: Diverse Identities in the US and Beyond” taught by Sasha Kimel, Visiting Assistant Professor and Postdoctoral Fellow of Psychology, Harvard University.
AY 2015-2016 Visiting Artists Artists
Ranjit Kandalgoankar showing his work to Rahul Mehrotra
Basir Mahmood presenting in Doris’ class
Paribartana Murthy presenting his work in a seminar.
FALL 2015 RANJIT KANDAGOANKAR
FALL 2015 BASIR MAHMOOD
SPRING 2016 PARIBARTANA MURTHY
INDIA
PAKISTAN
INDIA
Ranjit Kandalgaonkar’s art practice focuses primarily on unseen or ignored processes of urbanization. During his time at Harvard, Ranjit visited Sunil Amrith’s, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies, Harvard University, class on “Environmental History of South Asia.” Of his visit, Professor Amrith noted, “(Ranjit) provided the students with a fascinating glimpse of how he works with historical materials and archives in creating his art, and focused in particular on the ways in which his art engages with themes of environmental history. Feedback from the students was very positive. They clearly appreciated the opportunity to explore the subject from a completely different perspective, and many of our class discussions in later weeks returned to the inspiration of Ranjit’s visit – which clearly sparked many ideas among the students, including by making them think about how to integrate visual materials more fully into their projects.”
Using video, film and photographs, Basir Mahmood’s work weaves together various threads of thoughts, findings and insights into poetic sequences, building various forms of narratives. In collaboration with the Harvard College Pakistan Association, Basir hosted a workshop titled “A Memory, a Monument, a Material,” in which he encouraged students to collect and recollect memories through a brainstorming session. The students found that, though their backgrounds varied, words like ‘home,’ ‘school,’ and ‘time’ invoked similar memories and thoughts.
“Act the Victim” is based on a simple invitation to ‘act’ as victim, consciously positioning people in the discomforts of victim-hood and open associations with crisis. “Act the Victim” is an apparatus, a play, which at any given moment responds to the immediate. The process makes visible the sets of heterogeneous forces/structures (institutions, police, philosophical propositions, art and culture, behavior, the social, political and so on) that intersect and surface via an individual, group or community.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 15
AY 2015-2016 Visiting Artists
Art installation by Milan Rai at Harvard
SPRING 2016 MILAN RAI NEPAL
Milan Rai’s “White Butterfly” project is a personal art installation that has grown to have a global outreach for different community causes and concerns. It is a demonstration of how the role of art can take different turns when shared across social media, connecting people and communities to effect social change and awareness. Particularly, Milan has used his “White Butterfly” project to support the response after Nepal’s devastating earthquake in 2015. During his visit to Harvard, Milan engaged with Harvard for Nepal, a student group that was formed to unite Harvard’s response after the 2015 earthquake. Thousands of white butterflies were installed across Harvard campus and Milan invited the community to write its wishes on the wings of each butterfly. “Wishes become most powerful when we expect nothing in return and thus I invite people to come forth in togetherness, and make their wish by simply sprawling on white paper butterflies, the dreamiest wishes that appear to be baseless in real life but are capable of moving the foundation of our reality,” wrote Milan of his exhibition.
16 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
ARTS PROGR
grants The Mittal Institute supports student and faculty through research and travel grants related to the arts.
The Mittal Institute Interns and Student Art Show A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 17
faculty grants
“Between: Agencies, Objects and Architecture” Panel at ACSAA Symposium with Qaman Adamjee, Marika Sardar, Mary Beth Heston and Atreyee Gupta
Sugata Bose leads a discussion
OCTOBER 12-15, 2017
FEBRUARY 7, 2018
American Council for Southern Asian Art
Dhaka Art Summit
120 people attended over four days of The American Council for Southern Asian Art (ACSAA) symposium at Harvard University. The symposium was a combination of rich sessions on South Asian art and visits to Boston and Cambridge museums. It was also an opportunity for colleagues to meet, reconnect with mentors and graduate school cohorts, and share current research in the field. Panelists explored new methodological directions. Several papers took interdisciplinary approaches and excavated new historical meaning with clear historiographical awareness. The ACSAA Symposium was organized by the Mittal Institute in conjunction with Professor Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University, and Laura Weinstein, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy curator of South Asian and Islamic Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), with the generous support of the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University; Harvard Art Museums; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Asia Center, Harvard University; The Committee for the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities; and the Office of the Dean of Arts and Humanities. ACSAA symposia occur in alternating years, serving senior scholars to graduate students, to gather and share knowledge on South Asian arts.
SHILPAKALA ACADEMY BANGLADESH The Dhaka Art Summit (DAS) is an international, non-commercial research and exhibition platform for art and architecture related to South Asia. With a core focus on Bangladesh, DAS re-examines how we think about these forms of art in both a regional and an international context. Founded in 2012 by the Samdani Art Foundation—who continue to produce the festival—in collaboration with the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, DAS is hosted every two years at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Professor Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University, was on two panels at this year’s event: “Rising Oceans and Conflict: From Bangladesh to Planetary Scale,” as well as “Diving deeper into Bangladesh, the Oceans, the Pacific, and Forms of Justice.” Both of these talks examined how the ocean, art, and environmental studies can address natural destruction and political violence.
18 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
STUDENT grants
The Mittal Institute grant recipient, Maung Nyeu, reads one of his children's books
Rachel Parikh, Calderwood Fellow, Harvard Art Museums
APRIL 4, 2018
SPRING 2016
The Mittal Institute Spring Art Exhibition The Mittal Institute Spring Art Exhibition features 2D and 3D art and artifacts inspired by Harvard students who traveled to South Asia sponsored by the Mittal Institute travel grants. Some highlights included children’s picture books written by Maung Nyeu in the Indigenous languages of Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, photographs of fallen mosques in Myanmar and candid photos of workers at a laundry service in Mumbai. This show was curated and organized by the Mittal Institute interns Sheliza Jamal (HGSE '18) and Neeti Nayak (GSD '18).
RACHEL PARIKH In addition to the Visiting Artist Program, the Arts Fund supported the research travel of Rachel Parikh, Calderwood Curatorial Fellow in South Asian Art at the Harvard Art Museums. The Mittal Institute Travel Fund supported Rachel’s trip to the United Kingdom to conduct research for her book on South Asian arms and armor, “The Power of Protection: The Material Culture of South Asian Arms and Armor.” The book will serve as the first foundational text on the subject of South Asian arms and armor. The genre has been greatly overshadowed by other aspects of South Asian visual and material culture. Additionally, the limited scholarship, provided mostly by collectors and dealers of the material, has perpetuated misinterpretations, unfounded biases, and myths regarding the construction, function, and purpose of these objects. Compounding the study of the material is the general misconception that arms and armor were only intended for battle and conjure the notion of violence and conflict. Her book aims to address these issues through thoughtful, indepth research. From different contexts, it will demonstrate that these objects served many purposes that go beyond the battlefield. A chapter of Parikh’s book is dedicated to the use of edged weapons as ceremonial objects and as fashion and accessories under the Mughals and Rajputs. Parikh worked in the British Library, looking at a sixteenth century manuscript, the “Akbarnama” (Memoirs of Akbar). The Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) commissioned his multi-volume memoir to not only document his reign, but also document the cultures, languages, religions, customs, art, and societal practices of those who fell under his rule. The copy of the “Akbarnama” at the British Library is the only one to have an illustrated section on Indian arms and armor. It is a valuable primary source that reveals what types of objects were popular in India during the sixteenth century, as well as how and why they were used.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 19
Events The Mittal Institute strengthens South Asia-related research in a variety of disciplines through seminars, workshops and multi-faculty research projects and programs. Attendees at the reception for The Mittal Institute Visiting Artist Exhibition Reception and seminar A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 20
Arts at The Mittal Institute This lecture series brings artists, scholars, and historians together to showcase South Asian art. The varying mediums include film, performance, sculpture, and paintings all centered around critical issues of the region.
Danish Husain performs Dastangoi, an ancient form of Urdu storytelling
Seema Kohli delivers an artist talk on her practice
Filmmaker Avijit Mukul and architect Rohan Shivkumar
SEPTEMBER 21, 2017
OCTOBER 23, 2017
OCTOBER 31, 2017
Qissebaazi: A Multilingual Storytelling Orbit Directed by Danish Husain
In Silence, The Secret Speaks
Nostalgia for the Future
Seema Kohli, Artist
Rohan Shivkumar, Architect
Chair: Richard Cash, Senior Lecturer on Global Health, Department of Global Health and Population, T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health.
Chair: Rahul Mehrotra, Professor of Urban Design and Planning, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Danish Husain, Poet, Actor, Filmmaker and Theater Director Chair: Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures, Harvard University Husain is one of the people who have helped revive the lost art form of Urdu storytelling, Dastangoi, and is a columnist with India Today’s opinion website Daily O. In this performance, Qissebaazi expanded and built upon traditional storytelling. A multilingual platform with multiple performers, it was theatrical in presentation but still, distinctively, storytelling.
Avijit Mukul, Filmmaker
Seema Kohli merged storytelling into her artist talk by reading poetic reflections on her artistic practice from a scroll. As she spoke, a slide show played over 200 separate art pieces. The art included drawings, paintings, installations and sculptures that she has created over the past several decades. Her art celebrates the lost feminine narrative and engages with a wide circuit of references like religious iconography, world mythology, philosophical and literature.
The collaboration between Avijit Mukul Kishore and Rohan Shivkumar emerges from the intersection of their respective disciplines – architecture and documentary film. The film opens these disciplines to self-critique and looks at the way they imagine and construct a nation and its citizen. After the film screening of Nostalgia for the Future, Avijit and Rohan discussed the overall themes. The film focused on the idea of home placed in three different settings: the body, city, and nation. Many students asked about the process of making the film, exploring the archetypes of modern man, and the stylistic jittery mood of the cinematography.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 21
Arts at The Mittal Institute
David Dean Shulman discusses Kudiyattam
Performers demonstrate Kudiyattam during a workshop
David Dean Shulman gives a lecture
NOVEMBER 8, 2017
NOVEMBER 8, 2017
NOVEMBER 10, 2017
Kudiyattam Lecture
Nepatha: Kudiyattam, Sanskrit Theater Workshop
Outer Beauty and Inner Silence
The audience watched several students learn how to perform traditional Kudiyattam at the Agassiz Theater in a workshop led by the troupe Nepathya.
David Dean Shulman, Hebrew University
David Dean Shulman, Hebrew University Chair: Richard Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies Dean Shulman discussed Kudiyattam, the last living performance tradition of Sanskrit theater in the world. Kudiyattam combines ancient Sanskrit theater with Koothu, a tamil performing art. This visually powerfully tradition is recognized by Unesco as preserving “masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity.”
Co-sponsored with Blodgett Distinguished Artists with support from the Department of Music, the Provotial Fund for the Arts and Humanities and the Elson Family Fund.
Chairs: Parmil G. Patil, Professor of Religion and Indian Philosophy, Harvard University Richard Wolf, Professor of Music and South Asian Studies, Harvard University This lecture offered readings from one extraordinary section of the Tamil text, Kampan’s twelfth-century Irāmāvatāram, the Cittirakūtap patalam, when the heroes enter into their new home in the wilderness. The question that was addressed: What is the poet telling us about this tensile moment, and, above all, what has he left unsaid? Co-sponsored with the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University.
Nepathya performs a full Kudiyattam show at Harvard
NOVEMBER 9, 2017
Kudiyattam Performance The troupe Nepathya, from central Kerala in South India, performed Kudiyattam at the Agassiz Theater.
Co-sponsored with Blodgett Distinguished Artists with support from the Department of Music, the Provotial Fund for the Arts and Humanities and the Elson Family Fund.
22 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Arts at The Mittal Institute
Sonal Kullar and Jinah Kim
Baghban movie poster
From left: Jinah Kim, Deepa Mehta, David Hamilton and Durba Mitra
NOVEMBER 14, 2017
NOVEMBER 20, 2017
NOVEMBER 30, 2017
Baghban
Earth
Southern Lights: Art History
As part of the Aging in Asia film series, The Mittal Institute co-sponsored a screening of the landmark Hindi drama film Baghban (2003). An elderly couple wish their children to care for them in their old age, but their children see and treat them as a burden, and they must struggle to regain their worth and dignity to themselves and others.
Deepa Mehta, Filmmaker
Co-sponsored by the Asia Center.
Co-chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Department of History of Art and Architecture Co-chair: Durba Mitra, Carol K. Pforzheimer Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute; Assistant Professor of Women, Gender and Sexuality Filmmaker Deepa Mehta joined us for a screening of her film Earth (1998), the third and final film in her acclaimed Elemental trilogy. A discussion followed the screening, giving a wide array of students, scholars, and community members a chance to interact with the filmmaker. The conversation included Jinah Kim, Durba Mitra and Deepa Mehta's longtime producer, David Hamilton.
Sonal Khullar, Associate Professor, Art History, University of Washington Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture In her seminar, Sonal Khullar explored postcolonial museum practices in the display of South Asian Art, using the 2017 Documenta exhibition of Indian painter Amrita SherGil as a case study. In the Documenta exhibition, Sher Gil’s work was exhibited alongside that of American filmmaker Maya Deren (1917-1961), presumably to highlight affinities in their feminism, primitivism, and cosmopolitanism.
Deepa Mehta fielded many questions about her artistic process, including her casting choices, as well as the way she chose to portray Partition atrocities. Support for this program was provided by the Richard L. Menschel Endowment Fund. Cosponsored by Harvard Art Museums.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 23
Arts at The Mittal Institute
Doris Sommer leads participants through Pre-Texts
Murad Khan Mumtaz explores manuscript paintings
Tushar Madhav and Sarvnik Kaar answer questions about their film
MARCH 9, 2018
APRIL 6, 2018
APRIL 9, 2018
Pre-Texts with Doris Sommer
The Sufi in the Garb of a Yogi: Articulations of Sanctity under Muslim Patronage in Early Modern Indian Painting
Soz: A Ballad of Maladies
Doris Sommer, Ira and Jewell Williams Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University With the activities of Pre-Texts, we gather lessons of philosophy, pedagogy, and art — including vernacular arts — to offer high order learning in low-resourced communities. In collaboration with partners in the Indian education and public health sectors, Cultural Agents hopes to contribute to development in India with Pre-Texts by engaging local strengths to promote: literacy, innovation, and citizenship.
Murad Khan Mumtaz, Artist and Researcher
Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University This talk focused on 16th and early-17th century album and manuscript paintings made for Muslim patrons where the Nāth yogi appears as an emblem and surrogate for the Islamic spiritual path of tasawwuf (Sufism), an archetype for the mystical traveler (sālik) and a figure of spiritual longing. Co-sponsored by the Prince Alwaleed Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University.
24 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Tushar Madhav, Director Sarvnik Kaur, Writer Chair: Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Brown University This film is a portrait of poets, musicians, and artists who have turned their art into weapons of resistance during periods of heightened state repression and violence in Indian-administered Kashmir. By evoking the collective memory of a people and unwinding threads of their folk history, the featured artists and musicians in this film negotiate with questions of survival, resistance, and freedom — all deeply embroiled in the complex conflict of Kashmir. Combining animation, folk music and street plays with casual conversations at street corners, expert analyses and stump speeches, this was a documentary about a nation, a people and one extraordinary idea.
Arts at The Mittal Institute
Ankit Chadha performs Dastangoi
Jinah Kim introduces Dr. R. Siva Kumar
Participants of the Annual Poetry Reading
APRIL 9, 2018
APRIL 13, 2018
MAY 13, 2018
Dastangoi
From Interlocutor to Painter: Rabindranath Tagore and Modern Indian Art Visiting Artist Seminar
Annual Poetry Reading
Performance by: Ankit Chadha Chair: Hajnalka Kovacs, Preceptor in Hindi and Urdu, Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University Dastangoi, the lost art of Urdu storytelling, developed in 8th century CE around the adventures of an Arab hero, Amir Hamza. These stories became very popular in 19th century North India. With the demise of the last known exponent of the art form in 1928, Mir Baqar Ali, the form also died with him. The modern revival has seen not just the performance of the traditional stories from the Hamza dastan, but also the adaptations of more local and contemporary themes. Ankit Chadha, a writer and storyteller, has been a practitioner of Dastangoi since 2010. His writing varies from biographical accounts of personalities like Kabir, Rahim, Dara Shikoh and Majaaz to modern folk tales on corporate culture, internet and mobile technology. Ankit also has works for young audiences and has worked on Urdu adaptations of children’s classics; including Alice and The Little Prince. He is the author of the award-winning book for children, My Ghandhi Story, and the recently released, Amir Khusrau – The Man in Riddles.
Dr. R. Siva Kumar, Professor of History of Art, Visva Bharati University
At the Annual India Poetry Reading, dozens of poets of South Asian gathered. This year marked the 22nd year since the India Poetry Reading group was formed. The event was hosted by The Mittal Institute and the DSAS of Harvard University.
Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture Dr. R. Siva Kumar gave an illustrated talk on Rabindranath Tagore’s contribution to the evolution of modern Indian art and his emergence as a painter. While Rabindranath began to paint in 1928 when he was 67 years of age, his interest in art goes back to the last decades of the 19th century and he established the art school at Santiniketan in 1919. Through his encounters with world art, Rabindranath had initially believed that it was beyond him to become an artist, discovered himself as an artist. Co-sponsored by the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Possible with a grant from the Harvard University Asia Center. Co-sponsored by the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University.
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 25
The Mittal Institute Annual Symposium The Mittal Institute’s eighth Annual Symposium featured a discussion on translational knowledge across the subcontinent, from the perspectives of humanities, science and social science.
KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION: ACROSS DISCIPLINES, GEOGRAPHIES AND FROM RESEARCH TO ACTION MAY 4, 2018 SESSION I: MATERIAL, SCIENCE, AND ART: STUDY AND CONSERVATION OF SOUTH ASIAN ART IN THE TWENTY FIRST CENTURY Francesca Bewer, Head of the Materials Lab, Research Curator for Conservation and Technical Studies Programs, Harvard Art Museums Katherine Eremin, Patricia Cornwell Senior Conservation Scientist, Harvard Art Museums Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums Chair: Jinah Kim, Gardner Cowles Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture South and Southeast Asian, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The 2018 Mittal Institute symposium began with an enriching talk about the role of science in art. Panelist Narayan Khandekar, Director of the Straus center for Conservation and Technical Studies, described the significant role that science plays in the conservation and study of art. Specifically, he spoke to the reasons why we even need a scientist in a museum. Through several examples, such as the process of determining whether a painting is an original or a restoration through the pigmentation of the colors, Narayan highlighted the quintessential role of the scientist. Among the many roles played by a scientist in the field of art, it is useful in understanding the materials and techniques of an artist. It was interesting to note that Harvard has one of the oldest art museums that have been set up, to have a science laboratory, in the year 1927. The panel also featured Francesca Bewer, Research Curator for Conservation and Technical Studies Programs, Harvard Art Museums. Francesca highlighted the salient aspects of how scientific learning is applied in teaching in the art museum, with a special focus on the unique experiences of her students at the Materials Lab. Many of her students reflected on how they benefitted from learning about how pigments work, the use of light in art and the engagement with materials in a “laser focused manner”.
26 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
The talk ended with a beautiful account by Katherine Eremin, Patricia Cornwell Senior Conservation Scientist, Harvard Art Museums, on the deeper understanding that one can reach through closely examining each piece of art through a scientific lens. Several aspects, such the as the underlying text in the art piece Nayika and Her Lover, was only discovered after examining it through a raman spectroscopy, or the traces of Indian yellow that can be found in paintings, when examined using XRAY fluorescence. The session brought to light the intersectionalities between disciplines that, to a layman, would not be obvious. It drew an enriching parallel between art and science in a way that highlighted how they complement each other and also, how much we have to learn from the relationship between the two.
The Mittal institute arts fund Budget Fiscal Year 2017-2018
Fiscal Year 2018-2019
INCOME
INCOME
Art Advisory Payments + Annual Interest
$90,000
Art Advisory Payments + Annual Interest
$90,000
Art Advisory Balance Forward
$81,658
Art Advisory Balance Forward
$84,865
Harvard Regan Fund Grant Balance Forward
-$943
Harvard Regan Fund Income
$5,000
TOTAL
$174,865
TOTAL
$175,715
EXPENSE
EXPENSE Visiting Artists Stipend + Travel + Honoraria
$38,000
Faculty Grants
$5,000
Visiting Artists Stipend + Travel + Honoraria
$38,000
Arts-related Programs on Campus
$4,000
Faculty Grants
$10,000
In-Region Workshops + Programs
$22,000
Arts-related Programs on Campus
$4,000
Administration
$20,700
In-Region Workshops + Programs
$17,000
Administration
$21,850
TOTAL
$89,700
TOTAL
$90,850
Fiscal Year 2019 Predicted Ending Budget TOTAL
27 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
$85,165
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 27
The Mittal institute Budget Fiscal Year 2017-2018
Fiscal Year 2018-2019
INCOME + SAVED BALANCES Current Use Current Use‑ARTS Endowment Distribution TOTAL
INCOME + SAVED BALANCES $1,207,659 $66,028 $102,140
$1,375,827
EXPENSE
Current Use Current Use‑ARTS Endowment Distribution
$861,901 $172,252 $1,126,869
TOTAL
$2,161,022
EXPENSE
Faculty Support Student Support Outreach + Community Programs The Mittal Institute Arts Programs South Asia Regional Programs Operations FAS Gift Fund Tax (15%)
$173,686 $216,476 $21,075 $30,000 $25,750 $616,862 $98,886
TOTAL
$1,182,735
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 28 28 | T H E L A K S H M I M I T TA L S O U T H A S I A I N S T I T U T E , H A R VA R D U N I V E R S I T Y
Faculty Support Inter-faculty Research Support Student Support Outreach + Community Programs The Mittal Institute Arts Programs South Asia Regional Programs Operations FAS Gift Fund Tax (15%)
$249,248 $100,000 $115,390 $21,075 $69,000 $19,000 $799,710 $33,138
TOTAL
$1,406,561
A R T S P R O G R A M AT T H E M I T TA L I N S T I T U T E R E P O R T | 29
CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02138 USA mittalsouthasiainstitute.harvard.edu