Echoing Forms: Experiments in Hybridity by Sujata Majumdar

  • Aug. 16 - Nov. 15, 2021, 10:30 am US/Central

 

            

Biography of artist

Sujata Majumdar (1976, London) is a visual artist based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, working in a range of media to investigate notions of pattern formation. As Crossing Parallels artist-in-residence a Delft University of Technology she worked with photography and concrete to explore living and non-living weathering patterns on the environment. She sees these as co-creations between man-made and nature, which seem to transcend scale and shift boundaries, as nature reclaims attempts at control and colonization.

Interdisciplinary by nature, she has a background in physics, photography, and information technology. Raised in the UK and living in Europe, with Indian heritage, she finds she can easily look at things from multiple perspectives. With her first field of study being physics, science is still at the core of much of what she does. The intersection of cultures and disciplines drives her artistic endeavor, pushing her to hybridize, engage in dialogue, and raise awareness of underrepresented voices such as those of her patient collaborators in Desirable Dossiers a European Commission funded ICT-Art Connect project in 2014. For Signature Print in 2017 she worked in India to research possible revitalization  of ancient craft techniques using maker technology, inspired by data and automation, with and for the younger generation of craftspeople who can no longer earn a living from their family craft of block carving for textile printing.

Sujata is also co-founder of the multi-disciplinary forum Tickbird &Rhino bringing together specialists in conversation and collaboration to burst epistemic bubbles and dissolve disciplinary identities, as a route to uncovering new knowledge and perspectives. She is also head of Pattern Formation (and previously Conceptual Photography) at the Institute of Unnecessary Research. Sujata is represented by Cyclic Matter. Her work is held in several public and private collections including Amsterdam University Medical Center and the Amsterdam City Archive. She has been a speaker at the European Commission, Centre Pompidou (for Vertigo STARTS), MIT BioSummit 4.0, TodaysArt 2019, FEMeeting, and residencies include TU Delft and Waag.

 

Artist statement

My artistic work often begins with an observation of tension or a conflict of interests. I practise ‘image-led artistic research’ – interdisciplinary collaboration with others, driven by insights gained from creating and working with images. Taking cues from visual connections, I research possible relations between phenomena through image-making and creating hybrids, be they the co-creation between built environment and nature, or competing processes in a petri dish. In A Cure for Concrete, I conducted artistic research on patterning as well as protecting concrete surfaces, in collaboration with Stephen Picken, professor of polymer materials at TU Delft. The emerging organic patterns from wastewater chemical reactions and surface drying give us a glimpse into (much needed) longer lasting concrete, which also improves our wellbeing through organicity.

This exhibition includes photographs from ‘Scapes, Surface Tension, Lost, and Roots, and the interdisciplinary projects A Cure for Concrete (2019), and a Signature Print (2018). As a female British Asian artist I aim to open up new doors to science, in its culture and its acceptance of other approaches, for instance exploring visual connections between phenomena as a method. My experimental and speculative approach to art and science combines my commitment to both the visual arts and physics. I am currently collaborating with other Cyclic Matter artists on geometries and narratives with respect to waste, cyclicality, and scale, with political aspects of the past year coming into play.

 

Further detailed information on Sujata Majumdar

Sujata Majumdar – Website

Art/Ecology/Community – Sujata Majumdar

Institute of Unnecessary Research