‘Practice’ is the daily ‘work’ (verb) of art. It represents the sum of all moves—practical, conceptual, affective, cognitive, philosophical, analytical, and aesthetic—that occupy or de-occupy the state of our triangulation at any given moment. Contingent by nature, this practice shifts shape, surprising itself as much as it surprises others. Like a mycelial inhabitation—indeterminate and unbounded—it keeps expanding.

Group Photo

Group PhotoShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped VideoDuration, 2′ Performers of an Indian concert party at the Royal Ordnance Corps theatre, Baghdad, ca.1917 is a posed group photograph of a troupe of Indian soldiers and non-combatants near Baghdad, in the Mesopotamia theatre. It is […]

Training Camp

Training CampShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped videoDuration, 2′ 42″ In Training Camp, the time arc of the swinging chandelier that made its appearance in Trenches is extended, and we see soldiers performing seemingly joyous handstands in training camp. Time will crack differently for […]

Trenches

TrenchesShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped videoDuration, 4′ In Trenches, soldiers from archival images are collaged into film footage from a newsreel fragment titled  With the indian Troops at the Front, Part 1, Official Pictures of the British Army in France, and further juxtaposed […]

Sweeping

SweepingShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped videoDuration, 7’12” A performing body enacts the labour of cleaning, much like the working bodies of the non-soldiers in the War. The landscape where the act of sweeping is being performed reaches hand-coloured abstraction.

Dreaming

DreamingShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped video,Duration, 2’19” IIn Dreaming, a sergeant looks on at  a spinning shrouded figure, seen against what looks like a moonscape, as he overlooks a performer who is sleeping. 

Nerves

NervesShown at: ‘Not Yet at Ease’, FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Mural, Text and Drawings transferred in Vinyl 140 meter long curving wall The bold blue colour that forms the ground of Nerves is inspired by the Hospital Blues uniform worn by convalescing soldiers in British military […]

Spinal

SpinalShown at: ‘Not Yet at Ease’, FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Video Duration, 10′ 24″ Spinal is a study of the vertebral column that brings together an anatomical model and a dancer’s body in a conversation of gestures, stances, steps, positions, and caresses. The positions traced […]

Provisions for everybody (film)

Provisions for Everybody Shown at: AV Festival, Newcastle (2018)| Project 88, Mumbai (2018)| Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2019) | Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation, Leh, 2026 Single screen, Video, FurnitureDuration, 50′ Provisions for Everybody inscribes an eccentric itinerary on and off the trail of George Orwell that accompanies a reading of ‘The Road to […]

Provisions for everybody

With Provisions for Everybody, Raqs offers a weave of thoughts found on the the road; as well as images, calculations, texts, textures and textiles which accompany and aid the the task of re-imagining the relation between potential and plenitude.

Three Shadows

In Three Shadows, the dancing figures in white have been isolated and animated to render them into ghostly spinning specters.

Thicket

Solo ExhibitionTate Exchange (December 14-20, 2016) A thicket is a concentration of living matter. In forests, gardens, and fields, thickets rise where different plant species find it possible to thrive together in a wild celebration of life itself. Conversations too can have thickets; points of intersection of lines of force.  Through an interactive, participatory installation, […]