Pankaj Sarma
1993, Patacharkuchi, Assam, India
Pankaj Sarma is an artistic practitioner from Assam. He completed his Bachelors in Visual Arts in Painting from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in 2019. He is completing his Masters in Visual Art in Painting from the same. His works were part of the Hyderabad Literary Festival (2021) in a Virtual exhibit titled “Notes, Documents & Processes – Impressions from a school” and the 4th Edition of the Student’s Biennale. He has also participated in Univers 2, a Mail art project initiated by Karla Sachse, Berlin, Germany, in 2020.
His recent workshops include ‘Do Nothing’ a series of workshops developed by Dharmendra Prasad and Tara Lasrado in collaboration with DO Nothing Curating, in 2020; and ‘Still, as Ice, Live as Fire’, a Workshop conducted by Amarnath Praful, Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U of Baroda, 2019. He is also a member of the Anga Art Collective, a collaborative that thinks and works through regional and cultural specificities as a field to begin the process of decolonization in thinking and making.
Currently, he lives and works in Patacharkuchi, Assam.
“The river has no bank, no edge.
Which bank should I leave and where should I go…
Who do I ask?
The big river’s waters rock my boat…”
(2020– )
(Excerpt from ‘Nodir Kul Nai’, a folk song of the riverine Miyah community of Assam, as translated by Parasher Baruah)
In his ongoing project, Pankaj is trying to understand the evident changes in the landscape and the representation of landscape through the lens of the Anthropocene. The neo-liberal economic development in the world and its endorsement of geoengineering has been disastrous to the environment and climate, in the context of developing countries like India in the Global south. Hailing from a flood-prone state in the Northeast of India, Assam, Pankaj’s main concern is the riverine landscape and its geography, which is shaped and reshaped by colonization over water bodies. This concern is extended to questions around the issues of migration and large-scale displacement due to the changing landscape and construction of big dams in this region. Initiated by Pankaj in 2020, this multidisciplinary project furthers his exploration of the possibilities of moving images and sound along with the media of drawing and painting. The watercolor paintings presented are part of the same project.
Contact Details:
Telephone: +91 6003387904
Email: pankajsarma.ptkc@gmail.com
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