On Raqs Media Collective - Criticism - e-flux
Profile of RAQS Media Collective connected to the exhibition "The Time Is Never Ripe" (2026) at the Ladakh Arts and Media Organisation, Leh.
Recent Publications
In Ladakh, an ancient art gallery is hiding in plain sight
Scattered across rugged boulders and exposed to the elements for millennia, Ladakh’s prehistoric petroglyphs reveal a deep history of trade and ritual.
What erotic nutcutters reveal about the sensual history of paan in India
Antique sarotas fashioned as embracing couples reveal how betel chewing was once intertwined with courtly love, status and aesthetic pleasure.
As Bengaluru’s green fades, its ‘painter laureate’ feels newly urgent
The revival of Rumale Chennabasaviah’s lush botanical landscapes offers a striking look at the natural world being eclipsed by accelerated change.
Was Nataraja inspired by the stars?
One theory maps the Chola-era icon to the stars, but scholars warn that a purely scientific reading obscures its medieval history.
How Jain scrolls blurred the line between art, publicity and city portraits
Illustrated vijnaptipatras reveal how Jain communities in late medieval India visualised devotion, prosperity and civic identity.
How British artists painted Indian birds they had never seen
Rare early 20th-century lithographs show how scientific art and colonial extraction combined to recreate India’s avifauna from afar.
How cow urine became an unlikely ingredient in art and photography
The histories of Indian yellow and Bengal light reveal how colonial science and empire intersected with visual culture.
Vijay Singh Mohite: Inexorable Pulsations | Gallery Prologue | 8 Jan - 22 Feb
I was the curatorial advisor and catalogue writer for an exhibition of works by a late Gwalior-based abstract artist who, in his lifetime, only exhibited for a brief period in the 1970s.
From dust to digital: The quest to preserve India’s bazaar art
An ambitious project is digitising Priya Paul’s art collection, preserving vintage ads, cinema posters and more for future generations.
Cantus Firmus: Notes on Listening to Jangarh Singh Shyam
“The earth calls out, ‘Tell me Raja, why are you leaving me? You will never find such love in the city as you have found in your village!’”— Jangarh Singh Shyam
Geeta Kapur’s Speech Acts Reimagines Modernism for Our Times - The Wire
Attuned to India’s descent into Hindutva and neoliberalism since the 1980s, Kapur situates cultural production in an era of saffron capitalism
Why is ‘India’s Mona Lisa’ held behind bars?
The Gyaraspur ki apsara, one of the finest interpretations of the feminine form in Indian art, is locked away in a strongroom, a symbol of bureaucratic neglect.
In New Delhi, A Photographer Bends Facts to Get to the Truth
Introducing series: Vani Bhushan
How Salim used a painting of his grandfather and an astrolabe to forge a new royal identity
In the midst of rebellion, Prince Salim’s portrait of Humayun became a powerful tool in crafting his own legacy, distinct from his father Akbar.
Unbroken Cord
With her otherworldly textile art, Mrinalini Mukherjee united modernism and South Asian folk traditions. Kamayani Sharma explores the strands of Mukherjee’s career ahead
of an RA show on the artist and her circle.
of an RA show on the artist and her circle.
Vestibular Criticism: A Podcast
Podcast episode from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Polyglot Polyphony
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Alter Vox/ Vox Sui
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Ekphrasis, Orature and Translation
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Writing Across and Down : Transcribing and Describing
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Three Formats of Aural Writing
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
Listening In and Finding Balance
Dispatch from the Pro Helvetia x TAKE On Art Art Writers' Award residency 2025
A Counter-Aesthetic: The Art of Vikrant Bhise
A longform essay on the aesthetics and politics of artist Vikrant Bhise.
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