Artist Nilima Sheikh recounts her rich travel experiences to Sneha Ragavan of Asia Art Archive, from Himalayan treks in her youth to research trips to villages, caves and historic sites around the world, and explains how it has informed her artistic practice.

Nilima Sheikh is a Baroda based artist, having worked on various scales and surfaces, exhibiting at numerous important venues in India and abroad – including Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel in 2017, and Kochi Muziris Biennale in 2018.  Her most recent solo exhibitions include ​Each Night put Kashmir in your Dreams at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014, and Terrain: Carrying Across Leaving Behind at Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai in 2017, and Gallery Espace at Bikaner House, New Delhi in 2018. She has collaborated with artists from Baroda and craftspeople from Srinagar on a multimedia mural project Conjoining Lands for the Mumbai airport. She has written on art in books, journals and catalogue essays since 1971, done scenography for theatre, and also illustrated books for children.

Sneha Ragavan is a Senior Researcher and Projects Lead for Asia Art Archive in India, based in New Delhi. She conceptualises and leads AAA-I’s research initiatives on modern and contemporary art, including projects digitising artist archives; creating digital bibliographies of art across multiple languages; co-editing a forthcoming three-volume publication on 20th century art writing from the region; and organising with colleagues, seminars and workshops around archiving and art history. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, for her work on the discourse of the national modern in twentieth century architecture in India.