19 July – 30 October 2021
Project description
We are thrilled to present the winning commissions as part of Chang/ce: An Open Call for Animations which went out in January 2021 (see below).
Inspired by the Chinese classic, the I Ching or ‘Book of Changes’, the Bagri Foundation released an open call that invited submissions from illustrators and animators focussing on the idea of ‘Change’. With the help of our guest selectors Olivia Ahmad, Intan Paramaditha, Sahej Rahal and Reaksmey Yean, the artists invited to make new commissions are: Rama Duwaji, Meera Krishnamurthy and Nuka Nayu. Read more about them and the open call process here.
Addressing loneliness, despair, regeneration and growth, the artists present an array of textures, from shadow puppets to hand-drawn characters and photography to costume. Windows and architectural forms create portals for the imagination, to envision new worlds and re-imagine customs and traditions. There is a space for hope in these new commissions, a positive place where the artists have considered how our future and lives can evolve within the global situation we now find ourselves. A great amount has changed for each of us since early 2020, and this is reflected in each of the stories that the artists have created for Chang/ce.
From 19 July, each of the commissions will be released on our website beginning with Meera Krishnamurthy’s work entitled Change/ce. This will be followed by Nuka Nayu’s commission Book of Permutation = Tale of a dying house and finally Rama Duwaji’s new work Dar Al Qamar.
They will be available to view exclusively on our website until October. Click on the images below to view the works when they are released.
January 2021 – Chang/ce Open Call for Three Animations with £3,000 Fee for Asian Artists
Bagri Foundation is pleased to announce Chang/ce, An Open Call for Animations.
The Foundation is seeking three new commissions by worldwide-based artists from Asia and the diaspora to premiere online in Summer 2021. They might be narrated, typographic, filmed, collaged, hand-drawn, stop motion, Claymation, augmented photography or digitally created – the options are endless.
The Foundation welcomes proposals from artists, illustrators, designers, and animators in which the opportunity to receive resources from a major arts organisation would be impactful. The Foundation encourages anyone who considers themselves an emerging artist from Asia or the Asian diaspora to apply.
Chang/ce is inspired by the I-Ching, the Book of Changes, and as 2021 arrives, the world forges ahead, perhaps towards surprise, disappointment or even inspiration. At this important start to the year, the Foundation invites submissions from illustrators and animators to create a new narrative focussing on the idea of ‘change’.
The submissions are due on Monday 15 February 2021 at 10am UK time and will be reviewed by the Bagri Foundation team and an international panel of guest selectors: Olivia Ahmad (House of Illustration, London), Intan Paramaditha (Novelist, Sydney), Sahej Rahal (Artist, Mumbai) and Reaksmey Yean (Phnom Penh International Institute of the Art, Cambodia).
About the Guest Selectors
Olivia Ahmad is a London-based curator and editor specialising in graphic arts and design. Her recent projects have included exhibitions on socialist design from Soviet Russia, Cuba and the DPRK, London’s first exhibition of work by queer icon Tom of Finland and developing the UK’s only dedicated residency for illustrators. Olivia is Artistic Director at House of Illustration, the UK’s centre for illustration, and editor of Varoom, the contemporary illustration magazine published by the AOI.
Intan Paramaditha is an Indonesian writer based in Sydney. She holds a Ph.D. from New York University and teaches media and film studies at Macquarie University. She is the author of the short story collection Apple and Knife (2018)and the novel The Wandering (2020), which was selected as Tempo Best Literary Fiction of 2017 and a winner of PEN Translates Award from English PEN. Both books were translated from the Indonesian language by Stephen J. Epstein and published by Harvill Secker.
Sahej Rahal is primarily a storyteller. His sculptures, performances, films, paintings, installations, and AI programs, narrate an absurd counter-mythology that interrogates the narratives that shape our present. This myth-world draws upon archaeological records, conspiracies, science-fiction, and folklore, orchestrating scenarios where indeterminate beings cohabit the porous boundaries of history, myth and memory.Rahal’s participation in institutional solo and group exhibitions internationally have included ACCA Melbourne 2019, Vancouver Biennale 2019, Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai, 2018, Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham UK, 2018; Centre for Contemporary Arts Glasgow, 2017; PRIMARY Nottingham, UK 2017; the Liverpool Biennial, 2016; Setouchi Triennial, 2016; Jewish Museum, New York, 2015; Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2014; MACRO Museum, Rome, 2014. His work has been exhibited at Galleria Continua, Les Moulins, France, 2014 and Art Stage Singapore, 2014. His most recent solo exhibition took place in 2019 at Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai.
Reaksmey Yean is a native of Battambang and is an art advocate, an early-career art curator, writer, and researcher. Currently, he is a programme director of Silapak Trotchaek Pneik, a contemporary art space by YK Art House. He is also a part-time lecturer at Phnom Penh International Institute of the Art (PPIIA). Yean is an Alphawood scholar (SOAS, the University of London for Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art – in Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian Art). He was an exchange scholar at the Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs, Chiang Mai University. He is an inaugural SEAsia Award Scholar (2017) of LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore, an Asian Cultural Council fellow (2018), and a beneficiary of Dr. Karen Mcleod Adair grant for MA in Asian Art Histories at LASALLE College of the Arts. Yean was a curator for creative programs at Java Creative Café, Phnom Penh. Prior, he served several senior posts, including an Assistant to School of Performing Arts, at Phare Ponleu Selpak, a multi-disciplinary arts center, where he received his early education. He is also a founding father of a defunct collective named Trotchaek Pneik, a cultural and artistic collective based in Battambang.
