जय भीम
This perspective is deeply rooted in the revolutionary Dalit literature and folk music that profoundly shaped the angry yet joyous Dalit child within me. Over time, my intention and inspiration for creating art evolved—from building cultural capital for political revolutions to developing templates and artistic expressions of personal storytelling as a means of inspiring communal healing. In other words, I seek to lay bare personal and familial stories for scrutiny through a political lens, examining the intergenerational inheritance of emotions and experiences.
Over the past decade, my mediums, guided by similar intent and inspiration, have evolved from writing Marathi poetry to short Marathi flash fiction, graphic designing, and photography. I gravitated toward photography for an extended period because it offers my audience a simple, approachable, and replicable means of personal reflection.
I wanted to create art forms that not only resonate with people but also make them feel, “I, too, can and should create art like this.” As a result, creating photo objects from familial and personal images captured on mobile phone cameras became my preferred form and medium for a significant period.
Yet, the exploration of the political within the personal remains largely obscure. Can there be interactive art forms that inspire frameworks and lenses to examine personal archives, revealing the strong undertones of our inherited emotions? Can a digital experience derived from personal digital diaries—distinct from a social media feed—compete for our attention/reflection in a meaningful way? Could webpages and web-applications be reimagined as a medium for artistic expression in this context?
In the coming years, hopefully through a multitude of collaborative projects with other artists and with an intention of creating more original and autonomous digital art experiences beyond social media aesthetics, I will be writing code every day in pursuit of these questions.
So, I used to be an artist.
<!-- But now, I also code to serve the arts. -->I am currently seeking ways to secure the time and resources needed to further extend and refine my technical craft. It could also help me connect with fellow collaborators who, like me, are patiently waiting to engineer their ideas for the online world beyond social media. Let's get in touch sometime and discuss our ideas!