Neha Kudchadkar - "home/land (I)"
2016, digital print on archival paper. This is one of a series of three photographs made in Israel and the West Bank that document the performance of rooting myself in a ‘foreign’ land. Materially I play with the idea of body/ clay as body / clay/ body as clay merging into the earth. With the image, I question the notion of, and relationship with ‘home’, with ‘land’, the meaning of a ‘homeland’ and the act of returning to the homeland. I question notions of ownership and control. I suggest rootedness and up-rootedness; I also refer to the first act of claiming right to the earth – by planting trees and crops – the means by which the human species has colonized the earth.
2016, digital print on archival paper. This is one of a series of three photographs made in Israel and the West Bank that document the performance of rooting myself in a ‘foreign’ land. Materially I play with the idea of body/ clay as body / clay/ body as clay merging into the earth. With the image, I question the notion of, and relationship with ‘home’, with ‘land’, the meaning of a ‘homeland’ and the act of returning to the homeland. I question notions of ownership and control. I suggest rootedness and up-rootedness; I also refer to the first act of claiming right to the earth – by planting trees and crops – the means by which the human species has colonized the earth.
Neha Kudchadkar - "home/land (II)"
2016, digital print on archival paper This is one of a series of three photographs made in Israel and the West Bank that document the performance of rooting myself in a ‘foreign’ land. Materially I play with the idea of body/ clay as body / clay/ body as clay merging into the earth. With the image, I question the notion of, and relationship with ‘home’, with ‘land’, the meaning of a ‘homeland’ and the act of returning to the homeland. I question notions of ownership and control. I suggest rootedness and up-rootedness; I also refer to the first act of claiming right to the earth – by planting trees and crops – the means by which the human species has colonized the earth.
2016, digital print on archival paper This is one of a series of three photographs made in Israel and the West Bank that document the performance of rooting myself in a ‘foreign’ land. Materially I play with the idea of body/ clay as body / clay/ body as clay merging into the earth. With the image, I question the notion of, and relationship with ‘home’, with ‘land’, the meaning of a ‘homeland’ and the act of returning to the homeland. I question notions of ownership and control. I suggest rootedness and up-rootedness; I also refer to the first act of claiming right to the earth – by planting trees and crops – the means by which the human species has colonized the earth.
Neha Kudchadkar - “Ceramic Woman (Autoethnography Through Objects)"
2015, digital print on archival paper, earthenware clay, artist’s body, words. Is power within or without? Or is it only a fantasy? Fiction Neha, just fiction. Objects and relationships Objects and time Objects and expectations Objects and memories Objects and fiction Objects and mythology Objects and self My attempt is to make objects of intrigue that are activated through physical interaction. The process is instinctive, corporeal. I am interested in the way my touch translates into form - how and why. I study the exchange of information between my body and the clay. Personal memories, and experiences – the intangible knowledge of the body determine the outcome. The resultant objects are fictional souvenirs of actual encounters. I dream of an afterlife for my work. For it to be touched, played with, moved, worn, and held. Be a catalyst for emotions. And a trigger for broader issues of value, autonomy, control and responsibility. Where does the body stop and object begin? How and how much does one control the other?
2015, digital print on archival paper, earthenware clay, artist’s body, words. Is power within or without? Or is it only a fantasy? Fiction Neha, just fiction. Objects and relationships Objects and time Objects and expectations Objects and memories Objects and fiction Objects and mythology Objects and self My attempt is to make objects of intrigue that are activated through physical interaction. The process is instinctive, corporeal. I am interested in the way my touch translates into form - how and why. I study the exchange of information between my body and the clay. Personal memories, and experiences – the intangible knowledge of the body determine the outcome. The resultant objects are fictional souvenirs of actual encounters. I dream of an afterlife for my work. For it to be touched, played with, moved, worn, and held. Be a catalyst for emotions. And a trigger for broader issues of value, autonomy, control and responsibility. Where does the body stop and object begin? How and how much does one control the other?
Neha Kudchadkar - “Yurei (Autoethnography through Objects)"
2015, digital print on archival paper, earthenware clay, artist’s body, words. I float down the road having broken free from something, someplace, maybe, having broken free from me. Objects and relationships Objects and time Objects and expectations Objects and memories Objects and fiction Objects and mythology Objects and self My attempt is to make objects of intrigue that are activated through physical interaction. The process is instinctive, corporeal. I am interested in the way my touch translates into form - how and why. I study the exchange of information between my body and the clay. Personal memories, and experiences – the intangible knowledge of the body determine the outcome. The resultant objects are fictional souvenirs of actual encounters. I dream of an afterlife for my work. For it to be touched, played with, moved, worn, and held. Be a catalyst for emotions. And a trigger for broader issues of value, autonomy, control and responsibility. Where does the body stop and object begin? How and how much does one control the other?
2015, digital print on archival paper, earthenware clay, artist’s body, words. I float down the road having broken free from something, someplace, maybe, having broken free from me. Objects and relationships Objects and time Objects and expectations Objects and memories Objects and fiction Objects and mythology Objects and self My attempt is to make objects of intrigue that are activated through physical interaction. The process is instinctive, corporeal. I am interested in the way my touch translates into form - how and why. I study the exchange of information between my body and the clay. Personal memories, and experiences – the intangible knowledge of the body determine the outcome. The resultant objects are fictional souvenirs of actual encounters. I dream of an afterlife for my work. For it to be touched, played with, moved, worn, and held. Be a catalyst for emotions. And a trigger for broader issues of value, autonomy, control and responsibility. Where does the body stop and object begin? How and how much does one control the other?
Neha Kudchadkar - “Thought Cast"
2015, digital print on archival paper, terracotta This work is from a group of seven casts of my everyday body vocabulary. These casts are the beginning of a gesture bank. The attempt is to make tangible fleeting expressions from everyday conversations. Clay captures the smallest imprints from my body. It becomes the retainer of a moment, a thought, a memory. When handled by someone other than myself there is a transfer of energy and knowledge from the maker to the viewer. It is the sharing/surrendering of a private moment and place to another. It becomes interesting to see how the object ‘fits’ or does not fit the viewer.
2015, digital print on archival paper, terracotta This work is from a group of seven casts of my everyday body vocabulary. These casts are the beginning of a gesture bank. The attempt is to make tangible fleeting expressions from everyday conversations. Clay captures the smallest imprints from my body. It becomes the retainer of a moment, a thought, a memory. When handled by someone other than myself there is a transfer of energy and knowledge from the maker to the viewer. It is the sharing/surrendering of a private moment and place to another. It becomes interesting to see how the object ‘fits’ or does not fit the viewer.
Neha Kudchadkar - “Thought Cast"
2015, digital print on archival paper, terracotta This work is from a group of seven casts of my everyday body vocabulary. These casts are the beginning of a gesture bank. The attempt is to make tangible fleeting expressions from everyday conversations. Clay captures the smallest imprints from my body. It becomes the retainer of a moment, a thought, a memory. When handled by someone other than myself there is a transfer of energy and knowledge from the maker to the viewer. It is the sharing/surrendering of a private moment and place to another. It becomes interesting to see how the object ‘fits’ or does not fit the viewer.
2015, digital print on archival paper, terracotta This work is from a group of seven casts of my everyday body vocabulary. These casts are the beginning of a gesture bank. The attempt is to make tangible fleeting expressions from everyday conversations. Clay captures the smallest imprints from my body. It becomes the retainer of a moment, a thought, a memory. When handled by someone other than myself there is a transfer of energy and knowledge from the maker to the viewer. It is the sharing/surrendering of a private moment and place to another. It becomes interesting to see how the object ‘fits’ or does not fit the viewer.
Neha Kudchadkar - “Painting in the form of a Plate (remnants of aggression)"
2015, Earthenware with tin glaze and lustre Through this project I have attempted to explore gesture, body language and movement in relation to creation and consumption. Formed with the force of my entire body, the ‘plates’ that are the result of the process are large, grotesque, loaded with colour and gold, much too excessive for the function they serve.
2015, Earthenware with tin glaze and lustre Through this project I have attempted to explore gesture, body language and movement in relation to creation and consumption. Formed with the force of my entire body, the ‘plates’ that are the result of the process are large, grotesque, loaded with colour and gold, much too excessive for the function they serve.
Neha Kudchadkar - “Painting in the form of a Plate (remnants of aggression)"
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Neha Kudchadkar - “Sharing Stories", Installation view
2016, Earthenware, Bedouin textile, artist’s voice This group of objects is gleaned from the short stories of Sadat Hassan Manto about the partition of India in 1947, and the documentary writing of Ben Ehrenreich from his travels in the West Bank. The objects are crucial players in my experience of their stories, and serve as icons of those experiences. Distorted, magnified, abstracted (as all stories are), they are witness to, and documents of the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in extreme, hostile environments.
2016, Earthenware, Bedouin textile, artist’s voice This group of objects is gleaned from the short stories of Sadat Hassan Manto about the partition of India in 1947, and the documentary writing of Ben Ehrenreich from his travels in the West Bank. The objects are crucial players in my experience of their stories, and serve as icons of those experiences. Distorted, magnified, abstracted (as all stories are), they are witness to, and documents of the extraordinary stories of ordinary people in extreme, hostile environments.
Neha Kudchadkar - “Sharing Stories"
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Artist Statement
Neha Kudchadkar places herself in her social, political, material, cultural, and physical environment through her work - sometimes playful, sometimes somber. She often uses her body as the subject and object of her work and as a tool for the making of it.
Bio
Neha Kudchadkar is a visual and performing artist currently based in Mumbai. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, and the Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U. Baroda. She is a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship. Neha is founder, director of beej, a performing arts initiative in Mumbai.