Halebidu Project
Jackfruit worked with art historian Katherine Kasdorf to research and write the content for the Halebidu Site Booklet. Jackfruit also designed the booklet, which is a guide to the Hoysala and later temples of Halebidu and the antiquities in the Site Museum. The booklet provides information about the history and architecture of its monuments, sculptures, materials used in their construction, antiquities on display at the museum and the current archaeological work being done by ASI in the area. Information about some monuments located near Halebidu are mentioned.
Jackfruit has also designed and edited the first digital internal catalogue for the Halebidu site museum. The catalogue is divided into two volumes which contain descriptions of 370 antiquities. Information on the material, color, original provenance, location in the museum, condition, size, period/date and a detailed description has been included for each monument.
Vernacular in the Contemporary
Jackfruit have curated an exhibition of works from the Lekha and Anupam Poddar collection as well as newly commissioned works by artists who are usually categorized as makers of folk, tribal and traditional art. At Devi Art Foundation, the two parts of the exhibition will feature some sixty artists who practice forms of painting and sculpture. Initially over 300 artists were contacted, 90 selected and 30 commissioned to make painted and sculpted works. The fieldwork and documentation is now an art historical archive since all selected artists were interviewed and photographed in their studios and workspaces. Jackfruit and Devi Art Foundation have created a curatorial agenda on the question of work and process, which provides these artists space and resources to develop and execute new projects and expand their practice. Jackfruit oriented the new commissions and co-designed the exhibition with DAF.
Hut-to-Hut : Research and design for a bio-climatic architecture and permaculture project.
This on-going project for the Panchabhuta Conservation Foundation involves field research to identify and document the financial, livelihood, ecological and architectural practices of residents of Kumta town and neighboring Kagala village in coastal Karnataka. The ethnographic research led to the writing and design two publications as part of a series that Panchabuta is developing for its Hut-to-Hut program in the Western Ghats, which involves experimental bio-climatic architecture and farm-to-eat permaculture. Jackfruit also assisted in the conception and documentation of the construction of the prototype hut.
Faith: Exhibition of a major retrospective for a senior Indian modern artist in New Delhi.
Senior Indian modern artist Manu Parekh wanted Jackfruit to curate the first solo exhibition of his paintings of spirituality, sexuality and Benaras at Art Alive, Gurgaon. Working closely with the artist and the gallery for several years, Jackfruit researched his archives, conducted interviews, commissioned essays and designed the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue. This show became a landmark event for the coherent historicization of his ouevre in the context of the both his artistic interests as well as the history of Indian modernism.
The Integral Nature of Things
Lata Mani’s book published by Routledge traces the consequences of prevailing ways of thinking that obscure the interrelations between things even as interdependence and indivisibility continually assert themselves. She explores language, labour, technology, post-structuralist theory, political rhetoric, sex, advertising, urban planning, neoliberal
globalization – interweaving observation, poetry and analysis.
Working closely with the author and the publishing house, the design of the book strives to balance the seriousness of purpose and the appeal to a thinking, engaged readership and between content and design.
The Tantra Chronicles
Lata Mani’s book published by Routledge traces the consequences of prevailing ways of thinking that obscure the interrelations between things even as interdependence and indivisibility continually assert themselves. She explores language, labour, technology, post-structuralist theory, political rhetoric, sex, advertising, urban planning, neoliberal
globalization – interweaving observation, poetry and analysis.
Working closely with the author and the publishing house, the design of the book strives to balance the seriousness of purpose and the appeal to a thinking, engaged readership and between content and design.
Homelands
The Delhi-based curator Latika Gupta explored the archives of the British Council Collection and curated an exhibition of contemporary British art around the idea of home and the questions of identity that flow from it. The collection holds works that document the changing landscapes, economic deprivation, social isolation as well as the vibrant complexity of Britain’s working and immigrant classes. The exhibition reflects the Collection’s expanse; from early works by senior artists such as David Hockney, mid-career artists such as Cornelia Parker and Mona Hatoum and young photographers such as Suki Dhanda.
The Homelands catalogue holds the work of 28 diverse artists as well as poets and writers. The design concept represents a British collection in India without invoking British or Indian national popular cultures. It also balances the visual and the literary content to achieve something between an exhibition and an academic publication.
The Ambiguity of Landscapes
We have curated an exhibition of Parvathi Nayar under the title- Ambiguity of Landscapes. This is a solo show of the latest works of the artist. Her art practices are centered on painting and drawing and conceptually they are rooted in ideas of narrative, at ways of looking and the privileging of sight. She explores the ideas of the daily narrative of our lives in this world through fragmentary, familiar and unfamiliar perspectives. All her works provide an obsessive attention to technique in the eventual resolution so that the subject is both the content and manner in which it is portrayed. The exhibition was organised at Gallery Veda.
Drawing 2014
Drawing 2014 is curation project that explores and showcases the history of drawing in India over the last 67 years. This project’s aim is to create a visually exciting and art historically rich exhibition of drawing. The project also seeks to create a pedagogic space, which holds the possibility for theorizing an important but under-studied practice in post-Independence art making. Over the last two decades, the categories of “Modern” and “Contemporary” have been debated variously in the art world. This curation project is engaged with the prospect of creating a platform where these debates are historicized and contextualized in the context of viewing and thinking with the work of canonical artworks and unorthodox artworks and artists. Drawing 2014 maps the multiple routes that the skill of drawing has traveled and celebrates seven decades of experimentation. Renu Modi established Gallery Espace in 1989 by with an exhibition o fautobiographical
works of M.F.Husain. The gallery has been showcasing prominent Indian artists over the past 25 years, periodically presenting drawing as a complete or a processual art
form. One major group show was Drawing 94, curated by Prayag Shukla in 1994, which was accompanied by a book. Other important drawing group shows include The Lyric
Line (2006) and Keeping Drawing (2008). Drawing Trails (2009) was an exhibition of Nilima Sheikh’s works on paper and Conscious – Sub-conscious, a special project by
Manjunath Kamat in 2010 in which he made spontaneous drawings on the gallery’s walls.
The Bagh
Brand Development for a garden retreat in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.
The Bagh is a heritage hotel set in 12 acres two hundred-year-old garden in Bharatpur Rajasthan, it is located just four hours away from major destinations such as Delhi, Jaipur and Gwalior. The Bagh offers visitors an opportunity to experience quiet luxury near Keoladeo Ghana National Park, one of the most famous bird sanctuaries in the world. The hotel’s twenty-three rooms are located in three different residential complexes. A restaurant, banquet hall, coffee shop, library and a gym, all situated in a verdant orchard, allow guests to enjoy solitude and companionship in restful indoor and outdoor spaces.
Jackfruit was the design consultant for the renovation of a 200-year old, ten-acre char bagh or Islamic style garden, located near the Keoladeo Ghana National Park, a World Heritage site). The project involved working with an architect to restore existing buildings and the creation of a new boutique resort with twenty-four rooms oriented around the avian life that annually migrates to the region.
Jackfruit supervised the development of a graphic identity, design of furniture, making of the interiors, supervision of textile production, dinnerware, and research and planning of a menu based on local cuisine. Jackfruit also curated a collection of contemporary women artists, black and white film stills of heroines and popular art for display throughout the hotel.