To People, Demos & Prostheses for the History of Insurgent Crowds

To PeopleShown at: Mathaf, Doha (2019) 11 Textile and 2 Prints on paper,100 x 500 cm each Eleven hand-woven carpets and two paper prints are hung throughout the gallery, cascading to the ground. The forms that inhabit the woven textiles represent a mass, a collective, or a network of people as an interlaced, connected weave. […]

Time Devices (2011- 2024)

“One question that stayed with us and has proven to continue getting exponentially more complex is that of time. The 90s had posed the scrambling of time in ideas of development, progress, or modernity.During that time, as very young people, we examined and re-examined what progress could even mean. We have, from then, been unpacking […]

Everything Else is Ordinary

Everything Else is Ordinary delves into the elusive, multifaceted nature of time and how it shapes our existence. Raqs explores the concept of time not as a singular, linear force but as a series of intersecting moments that reflect our complex relationships with labor, memory, and each other. The exhibition interweaves various elements of daily life with philosophical reflections.


Ghost Floating Legs

Ghost Floating LegsShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) VideoDuration, 6’3″ The First World War produced the greatest number of amputated limbs, especially when soldiers lost arms and legs as a result of stepping on mines. These bodies without limbs, and limbs without bodies, became ‘phantoms’  […]

Lalu’s Nightmare

Lalu’s NightmareShown at: FirstSite, Colchester, United Kingdom (2018) | ‘Spinal’, Frith Street Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2019) Looped videoDuration, 2’19” In Lalu’s Nightmare, one of the seated figures from ‘The Group Photo‘ is isolated, and he is haunted by an animated shadow behind him. The shadow suggests a multi-armed divinity which draws its inspiration from […]

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 […]

Not Yet At Ease

Not Yet At Ease premiered at FirstSite, Colchester as part of the 1914-18 Now Commissions: a series of new artistic works commemorating a century of the First World War. 

Provisions for everybody (film)

Provisions for Everybody Shown at: AV Festival, Newcastle (2018)| Project 88, Mumbai (2018)| Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha (2019) 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 Wigan Pier’. Traveling between Northern England, Eastern India, […]