Contemporary artist and winner of the India Art Fair & BMW India ‘The Future is Born of Art’ Commission, Devika Sundar, performing artist and co-founder of QueerAbad, Anahita Sarabhai and Nu of Revival Disability India, discuss the ableist nature of the art world, and the crucial need to shift perspective in a conversation moderated by accessibility consultant and Founder of Access For ALL, Siddhant Shah.
Siddhant Shah: Siddhant Shah founded Access For ALL, an organisation that aims at enabling ART and inclusive cultural experiences for all. Alongside his Diversity and Inclusion consultation practice with corporates, museums, arts festivals, and fairs; he lectures and speaks on Digital Accessibility and Universal Design across the globe with workshops at the TATE and others. His accessibility consultation work for the British Council India and the Museum of Prime Ministers of India was presented at the British Museum.
Nu: Founder of UN recognized Revival Disability India, Nu is a queer, disabled non-binary person. They work with technology to create safer digital spaces for queer and disabled folks. Their upcoming performance, “Bodies Of Dissent” deals with how disabled women, trans and non-binary folks navigate public, private and city spaces.
Devika Sundar: Devika Sundar’s practice shifts across different mediums, threading elements of collage, painting, and printmaking with photography, assemblage and installation. Currently, the artist and curatorial lead of “Bodies at Sea”, a proposed archives exhibition with Studio Slip and NCBS, Sundar explores art as a restorative, meditative medium and outlet.
Anahita Sarabhai: Anahita (they/them) is a queer disabled performing artist, activist, poet and educator. In 2022 they became the Co-Executive Director of FRIDA | The Young Feminist Fund, after 5 years as the Co-Founder Director of QueerAbad. They spend their free time dreaming up performance pieces and creative ways to change the world while their cat naps on their lap.
Titled ‘Align & Disrupt’, the talks programme curated by independent curator and educator Shaleen Wadhwana, and supported by Shiv Nadar – Institution Of Eminence, aims to align voices of leading artists and arts professionals on critical issues in the arts ecosystem, and collectively disrupt the status quo to shape a more aware and inclusive art world of the future. For the first time, the key learnings and insights from these talks will be documented in an action-plan which will be widely circulated and made accessible to the public on the India Art Fair website. All talks will be conducted in Indian Sign Language.