Saat Saath Arts Foundation There are still those who believe that creative practice plays an essential role in a healthy society and, in environments where government funding for the arts is lacking, they will stop at nothing to ensure its continued development. Saat Saath Arts Foundation was recently founded by philanthropist, collector and gallery director, Aparajita Jain, to create more opportunities for South Asian artists and to bring international curators to India. CCQ invited Jain, and two of the artists she works with, Reena Saini Kallat and Asim Waqif, to describe the scene and talk about their work. Aparajita Jain: Contemporary South Asian art is characterised by a particular vibrancy. I work closely with artists in the region; from those at the outset of their career, such as Nazia Khan and Aakash Nihalani, to established practitioners like Imran Qureshi, Asim Waqif, Reena Saini Kallat and Subodh Gupta. The scene here is particularly collaborative, with an eclectic mix of artists joining forces and drawing inspiration from each other. There is energy and a sense of the environment in which they work infused into their practices. This said, artists here produce work with themes that have universal significance – issues such as consumption, urbanisation and resource wars – these are things that affect us all. Aparajita Jain, founder of Saat Saath Arts Foundation, is based in New Delhi saatsaatharts.com
Reena Saini Kallat: The series of drawings, Hyphenated Lives, is a reimagining of fantastical mutations within the natural world. New hybridised species of birds and animals, trees and flowers, previously claimed by countries as their national symbols, transcend borders and political partitions through their symbolic unification. I felt the need to turn to animal species, rather than the human race, as a way of showing us how to share the planet, where the existence of one species depends on the other, or the disappearance of one affects the other adversely. These pieces are developed through my longstanding interest in the strained relationship between India and Pakistan post-partition, having grown up listening to stories about my father’s move from Lahore in Pakistan, where he was born, to Punjab in India.
Asim Waqif: Usually the seed of the idea for a project emerges from research into the context and environment of where the project will be located, whether it be in Delhi, Brisbane, Marrakech or Paris. I am more interested in the process of working, rather, than the end product. I hardly ever make a drawing or a sketch of what I want the end product to look like. Rather, I try to design and plan the process of making the work, looking at team dynamics and the manipulation of material. When things don’t go according to plan then I try to take advantage of mistakes, or unprecedented situations, rather than correct or hide them. Asim Waqif was born in Hyderabad, India, and is based in Delhi asimwaqif.com
Reena Saini Kallat was born in Delhi and is based in Mumbai reenakallat.com
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