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Prabhakar Barwe’s Eighty-Five Safety Pins is a pioneering work that merges technology and traditional art. Created in 1991 using graphic design software on an Apple Macintosh, Barwe explored the concept of pixels, a hallmark of the digital era, while incorporating his signature enamel paint. This innovative approach reflects his curiosity about embracing the unknown future and reinterpreting it artistically. By abstracting the safety pin from its conventional form, Barwe invites viewers to reconsider its essence, offering an open-ended visual experience that challenges preconceived notions and encourages alternative perspectives. Art connoisseur Shireen Gandhy, a friend of the late artist, takes us behind the making of this extraordinary painting.

A visit to an antique furniture warehouse and the former home of historian Sir Jadunath Sarkar with Professor Rosinka Chaudhuri, as we trace the Swadeshi influence on our living spaces, and the transformation of furniture design.

Tracing the evolution of set design in Bengal, responding to the theatre archive at Natya Sodh Sansthan with scholar Trina Nileema Banerjee. 

A walk and demonstration through the markets of Chitpur Road with historian Jayanta Sengupta and the DAG team to follow the trail from milk to sandesh, and meet the people who contribute to this enduring craft. 

A visit to Taherpur, Nadia for a workshop on the practices and genealogies of Sora-making with artists Ratan Paul and Gopal Paul, and artist-writer Dipankar Parui. 

An exploration of the instrument by tabla artists, Asif Khan and Rohen Bose, followed by a concert where they are joined by Alla Rakha Kalawant on the sarangi at the Jorasanko Thakur Dalan. 

An online cook along with Bong Eats and Pritha Sen, a food historian to delve into the history of dishes, made by our grandmothers and mothers, that form a large part of the art that we experience in our day-to-day life, in the kitchen and on our plates.

A storytelling festival for ages 12 and above by changemakers, activists and artists, exploring the idea of freedom from various walks of life.

Artists have often formulated their theories and observations to analyse and become aware of the cognitive modes of art making, and to associate with broader contemporaneous art movements. These manifestos become a window into an artist’s process. Prabhakar Barwe’s seminal treatise, <i>Kora Canvas</I> (The Blank Canvas, 1989), exemplifies his deep understanding of the fundamental elements of art and keen observations of nature and his surroundings.

This collection of essays, co-edited by eminent scholars of art history, Tapati Guha-Thakurta and Vazira Zamindar, navigate the fraught religio-political contexts of South Asia to bring into relief the fragility and amorphous nature of a contested term like the ‘secular’.

Curator Jesal Thacker and art writer Meera Menezes speak about Shanti Dave’s art practice and choice of medium that allowed several elements to come together in his encaustic paintings and layered watercolours.

‘Raza was in some ways an earth painter—someone to whom earth mattered both as a constant presence and an irrepressible memory.’ Ashok Vajpeyi looks at the natural mechanics of Sayed Haider Raza’s abstractions, tracing his relationship with landscape and art.