Anita Agarwal: This Too Shall Pass, Then What?
Our Highlight section focuses on artists who live or work in social housing. Anita Agarwal is a multidisciplinary artist from India, now based in London. Her practice is dialogical, socially engaged and activist in its approach. She is a feminist who uses her art practice to interrogate the socio-political parameters experienced in day-to-day life.
“I like to initiate and collaborate to create spaces to reflect, imagine and strive for possible new (ideal) worlds. I am continuously searching to create new language(mediums), and spaces where the responses to these reflections and imaginations are possible. I work across moving image, performance, installation, mark-making, and print. Archives, and social histories inform a provocative approach to storytelling within my practice. I often respond to events, sites, or provocations through my work. My response, although intuitive, is built on a strong foundation of comprehensive research.
My durational installation This Too Shall Pass, Then What? developed from an urgent need to hack into the dystopian present of March 2020, and to subvert the powerlessness I felt through constructive action. The work consisted of large scale messages, like open air tweets. They were displayed across the glass panels in the balcony of my 20th floor council flat in London and were changed at regular weekly intervals. I wondered if people passing by noticed the weekly change? Did they look forward to seeing the next one? Were they inspired by a chance encounter with art, outside on a normal day?
This project developed into a curatorial collaboration with fellow artists Katrine Skovsgaard and Louise Jensen called SW11NDOWS, a 24 x 3-day show, in which 23 artists showcased their work from their homes, gardens, and open areas. Part of the banner series This Too Shall Pass, Then What? was shown alongside this work.”
See more of Anita’s work on her website.
