Artist in Residence | Fall 2020

Fall 2020 | The South Asia Art Initiative Artist in Residence at UC Berkeley

In Fall 2020, the South Asia Art Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley launched Crisis and Creativity: Virtual Artist in Residence at UC Berkeley. Artists’ residencies and their affiliative senses of travel and mobility with which we are by now all too familiar is all but nada in the time of a global pandemic. Yet, the word residency is inundated with the sensibilities of being in place, of domicile, and of dwelling. To recapture these senses, SAAI invited artists Mithu Sen (New Delhi) and Brendan Fernandes (Chicago) to experiment with new forms of making, translate embodied creative processes into a digital realm, and craft new modes of audience engagement across dispersed latitudes and time zones. Curated by UC Berkeley faculty Allan deSouza, Atreyee Gupta, Asma Kazmi, and Sugata Ray, this was the first project of this nature where two artists were live streamed for 72 hours on the SAAI Artist Residency website.

 Mithu Sen October 2020 Virtual Residency. Screenshot.

Mithu Sen | Bar-clay for sale! Berk-lay for sale! Bark- ले for sale! PS: Berkeley for sale!(link is external)

Brendan Fernandes & Mithu Sen Virtual Residency. Screenshot.

Brendan Fernandes and Mithu SenCrisis and Creativity: A Virtual Residency(link is external)