SAF x ASAP Curatorial Research Fellowship 2023

ABOUT

Art South Asia Project (ASAP) and Serendipity Arts partnered to support a curatorial fellowship programme for a diasporic South Asian curator living in the UK. The primary aim of this programme was to establish cross-continental connections between South Asia and the UK, which facilitated the exchange of knowledge and the growth of the research field in both regions.

This three-month fellowship was designed to offer a unique opportunity for the selected curator to develop their research interests and curatorial vision. The programme encouraged the fellow to develop a research project, and curate an exhibition at Serendipity Arts Festival in December 2023 that reflects their research findings. This initiative also provided the selected curator with a platform to showcase their work, broaden their professional network, and an opportunity to contribute to the cultural exchange between South Asia and the UK.

This project was supported by Faizal and Shabana Foundation.

DURATION

3 months: August - October

INTAKE

1 Fellow

CURATORIAL FELLOW

About the fellow

Shalmali Shetty, a curator, artist and writer working between India and the UK. Shetty completed a BVA in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (2015), an MA in Arts and Aesthetics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (2017). Furthermore, she has completed a Masters of Letters in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) from the Glasgow School of Art (2020), supported by the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship. Shetty's research interests included themes of archives, memories, hauntology, oral histories, and speculative ideas around prophecies, oracles and imagined futures, extending her focus through the familiar framework of India, the wider Global South and its neo-colonial relationship to the West.

Website: Shalmali Shetty
Social Media: Instagram

About the Proposed Project

Shetty intends to use the three-month fellowship period to research, engage and connect with diasporic artists based in the UK working on themes of transoceanic histories and spectral memories associated with landscapes to bring together a series of artist moving images and writings to structure the exhibition. Her curatorial project will coalesce her backgrounds in art practice and theory.

About the exhibition

The nights will follow the days is premised on the story of the haunting reappearance of a woman who allegedly returns to her home numerous times much after her passing. She finally returns for one last time before the house she used to inhabit—a link, a refuge, an emotion, an association, an identity—was demolished. Taking this as a metaphor, the exhibition navigates across themes of spectral memories and narratives associated with spaces, places, lands and oceans. Through the works of five artists, it further explores personal truths, displaced generational memories and histories affected by colonialism, migration and political landscapes—enabling a return to a place of remembrance and imagination.

Artists: Alia Syed │ Amba Sayal-Bennett │ Munem Wasif │ Shiraz Bayjoo │ Sumakshi Singh

Exhibition website: https://www.serendipityartsfestival.com/exhibition/the-nights-will-follow-the-days

Event Recording

Event Recording at The nights will follow the days - SAF x ASAP Curatorial Research Fellowship Talk | Saturday 16th December 2023 | Serendipity Arts Festival, Goa, India

Event Recording at SAF X ASAP Curatorial Research Fellowship Culmination Talk | Friday 9th February | Frieze, No. 9 Cork Street, London