Pallavi Varma – About the artist: (March 16th)
Pallavi Verma hails from Jabalpur, where she grew up and did her schooling and college. Although she studied Science for her graduation, she went on to study management from Indore University. She is also a masters in Kathak from Khairagarh and has learnt in a few workshops with Birju Maharaj Ji as well.
Her tryst with theatre started in college, especially via National Youth Festival. Although she took up corporate jobs in the finance sector and worked in Mumbai for a few years – going back on stage was always at the back of her mind. She finally decide to make a career switch in December 2008 and has been exclusively involved in theatre, dance and writing as her occupation.
She has mostly acted in various productions by numerous theatre groups in Hyderabad, in various languages – viz English, Hindi, Urdu. She has mostly worked with the local group Sutradhar, having essayed some memorable characters and class acts. She has created dance pieces, most notably the ballet Chitrangada by Ravindra Nath Tagore in 2012, which she choreographed in the contemporary style of dance. She has also acted in a few short and feature films and has worked on a couple of scripts. She founded her own theatre group called Kriti Stories in 2016 and is actively making productions under this banner. As of now, she is focussing on directing theatrical productions. Her current production as a director is a Hindi play called Chuhal written by Manav Kaul. Another successful play performed a few times last year was The Right Thing To Do, which she conceptualised using three short stories written by Haruki Murakami.
About the exhibit:
This particular piece in this exhibition is one which is close to her heart and is an original piece based on the experiences of many people who fell in love after they turned 40. It is an approximately 40 minute theatrical piece that Pallavi will be performing solo. She will be using garments of all the 4 to 5 people she has interviewed while telling their particular story. She has created this piece exclusively for this exhibition, under her banner Kriti Stories. A bit of dance on live music and singing are part of this performance. Garments owned by the subjects would be used for the performance to portray the character or to weave a small tapestry piece. The aim of this essay is to put forth the psyche of people over forty falling in love, especially since it is not so common in India (wonder why?!), and to let the viewer meditate on inclusion, non-judgment and normalising unuseful taboos. The title of this piece would be ‘Ten Past Ten’. It’s a metaphor to indicate that though it’s an old way of saying it (meaning it belongs in the past), yet the time is right. The word ‘past’ has a bygone kind of indication and yet the firmness of something being right.
(March 17th)
Anindita Chakraborty is a painter. Her work is mainly encompassed with self portraiture, where she is introspecting her identity and redefining it. In her drawings she has chosen the traditional technique of Kalamkari painting to portray the emotional values of her inner and outer soul.
She did her BFA from Tripura Government College of art and craft and MFA from the University of Hyderabad in Painting.
Sonali Laha is a painter cum installation artist. She paints on silk and tries to absorb the complexities of body, mind and soul. Her work, ‘when a tree was trying to grow under the moon light’ is a narration of her personal journey of pain where she used threads and original hair on silk cloth.
Sonali has finished her BFA from college of art and design, Burdwan university and MFA from S. N. school, Cental university of Hyderabad in painting.