Sheetal Prajapati
My creative practice explores modes of emergent intimacies that inform our relationships to the material world, each other and ourselves. My work is a series of investigations in how intimacies develop, change and exist among us, our role in these processes, and the outcomes that can be generated. I am interested in unearthing or generating quieter or less visible modes of intimacy – considering distance, history, materiality, and directed modes of exchange – to realize the potentiality of existing or emergent relationships between the material and immaterial.
Currently this exploration is taking the form of a writing project about the experience of otherness. Through both first person and academic research, I am weaving my personal narrative from childhood to the present with essay and meditations on topics that inform an experience of otherness – race, gender, capitalism, and meritocracy alongside more conceptual constructs like belonging and intersectionality. Much of my previous studio-based practice has led to my current work. The intention of this writing project is to offer a lense into the experience of otherness that provides a space for intersectional empathy and action. How can our parallel experience of exclusion bring us into a shared space of possibility?
Over the last five years, my investigation into mode of emergent intimacies has taken shape in a range of media – from a ouija-board based participatory performance to tap into potential intimacy between strangers to letter writing as an exploration of building and documenting memories of discrete experiences through the lense of various existing relationships. My interest in materials and the materiality of these ephemeral ideas is to unearth or expose the possibilities of the intangible through building bridges or totems to access them.
In Meditation (Manifestations), a site specific installation and audio experience constructed entirely from carded and spun cotton that I handspun over the preceding three months. Through the process of spinning, the physical quality of the material transforms, from individual feather-like fibers to durable, bound thread. Present together, in each stage of the spring process, the sculptural work provides a space for meditation on the manifestation of new forms through labor. Drawing on two written works – Khadi, Why and How (1955), Mahatma Gandhi’s writings on spinning cotton as a form of economic resistance and The Religion of Man (1931), Rabindranath Tagore’s published 1930 Hibbert Lecture on human spirituality- the audio recording offers a speculative dialog meditating on collectivity as a form of resistance and liberation.
Often my work builds over time – realized in multiple forms and objects. Audit, a performative documentation of time and ritual, brought one year’s worth of bindis I wear together as a final installation in my apartment bathroom. This work, with an audience of 8 guests – who celebrated new years with me and witnessed the full bathroom installation -served as starting point and material for Parallel Current. This work on wood board recreates the constellation Eridanus, also known as Srotaswini. Over time, I have come to see this piece as kind of self-portrait – two parallel narratives that touch the same points in time and space. The naming of this collection of stars in both Roman and Indian astronomy reference flows of water as a bridge between the celestial and material worlds.
My creative practice is rooted in a kind of artistic pedagogy. I consider my labor across the arts as a curator, educator, and advisor as a expressions of my creative work. Discrete projects and objects are certainly a critical part of my larger practice but I am also interested in the all the ways I perform as artist in other modes of production and thinking. I believe that my work is about questioning the boundaries between these identities – curator, educator, artist, advisor, administrator, leader. Where does my artistic expression end and begin between, amongst and within each of these forms of labor? The process of creative expression can be fluid and concrete, personal and public, material and abstract. My practice seeks to find and create forms and experiences that open spaces on the spectrum within these seemingly binary scales.
Education
2007 Master of Arts, Arts Administration and Policy
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois
2002 Bachelor of Arts, History and Gender Studies
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Exhibitions, Installations, Performances, and Workshops
2018 & 2016 Spinning Circles | 3 studio workshops and dialogs
Haystack Mountain School of Craft, Deer Isle, Maine
2016 Altered States: Faculty Trienniel | curated by John Caperton
The Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2016 We are Not Alone | Two-part site specific interactive installation
Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
2016 NO ATLAS | Group exhibition at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts New York [June 10 – July 9, 2016]
2016 Game Night | group presentation of artist-made games
Denny Gallery, New York & New Rochelle, New York
2015 Audit | site-specific installation, home of the artist; archive of bindis worn by artist from January 1, 2015– January 5, 2016
2015,ongoing Bound | an ongoing series of intimate performances tying mauli (red thread) to individuals marking collective experiences
2014/15 a journal between us | a collection of journal entries and dialogs between the artist and 16 new York-based participants; materials presented at Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space gallery, New York [August 2015]
Residencies
2019 Making Futures School | Making Futures Bauhaus+ (upcoming)
Berlin, Germany [August 31 – September 15, 2019]
2018 Writer’s Retreat/Residency | Summer’s Day Ranch
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico [November 4 – November 30, 2018]
2018 Visiting Artist Residency | Wassaic Project
Wassaic, New York [October 1 – October 14, 2018]
2017 Open Studio Residency | Haystack Mountain School of Craft
Deer Isle, Maine [May 29 – June 9, 2017]
2016 Artist Research Residency | Arquetopia Foundation
Puebla, Mexico [November 7 –December 5, 2016]
2016 Visiting Artist Residency | Elsewhere Museum
Greensboro, North Carolina [July 13 – July 30, 2016]
2015-2016 Artist Residency | SHIFT, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts
New York, New York [August 2015 – July 2016]
2014 Teaching Artist Residency | Srishti School
Bangalore, India [November – December 2014]
Curatorial Projects
2016/17 Game Night | a series of 6 curated public events presenting artist-made games for play. Game night was a curatorial collaboration with Anna Harsanyi and included artists Chloe Bass, Sal Randolph, Richie Brown, Yasi Ghanbari, Dillon deGive, and others.
2007 Lessons in Learning: Art and Education from the Artists’ Book Collection Collection-based exhibition co-curated with Tricia Van Eck, MCA Curatorial Coordinator and Curator of Artists’ Books; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago [February-May]
20o4 Chicago Ravioli Project | a guerilla public art project curated and produced in collaboration with artist collective Temporary Services and Stephanie Pereira and Jacqueline Badzin [January – May]
Professional Experience
2018 –present Faculty, School of Visual Arts, MFA Fine Arts [New York, New York]
2017-2018 Director of Public Engagement, Pioneer Works [Brooklyn, New York]
2017-2018 Adjunct Faculty, Montclair State University, MFA [Montclair, New Jersey]
2016 Adjunct Faculty, Moore College of Art and Design, MA Community Practice [Philadelphia, PA]
2010-2016 Assistant Director, Learning and Artists Initiatives
The Museum of Modern Art [New York, New York]
Previously held titles include Acting Assistant Director and Associate Educator
2007-2010 Director of Educational Programs & Undergraduate Instructor
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University [Evanston, Illinois]
2004-2007 Manager of Family and Youth Programs
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago [Chicago, Illinois]
2002-2003 Interim Curatorial Assistant for Education
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University [Evanston, Illinois]
Artist Talks
2019 School of Visual Arts, New York, New York [March 26]
2018 Wassaic Project, Wassaic, New York [March 16]
2016 Galleries at Moore, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [October 18]
2016 Elsewhere Museum, Greensboro [July 16]
2016 University of North Carolina, Greensboro [March 1]
Lectures & Conversations (selected)
2019 R&D Salon: The White Male, Museum of Modern Art [New York, New York] 2018 The Future of Culture, Northside Festival [Brooklyn, New York]
2018 Keynote Speaker, Art School Collaborative
Haystack Mountain School of Craft [Deer Isle, Maine]
2017 Fatal Love: Where Are We Now?, Asia Society & Queens Museum [New York]
2017 NOW//NOW//NOW//NOW: Art Practice and Feminism
SOHO20 Gallery [New York, New York]
2017 Embedded, Embedding: Artist Residencies, Urban Placemaking, and Social Practice; Residency Unlimited & The New School [New York, New York]
2016 Ignite Talk: Sacrifice and Social Impact, KinnerLat [Antigua, Guatemala]
2016 Art in Practice: Intersections between Art, Education and Public Engagement; Haystack Mountain School of Craft [Deer Isle, Maine]
2015 Public Engagement and Museums
Creative Time Summit, Arts Curriculum [Brooklyn, New York, November 14]
2015 Artist as Educator, Exploring Two Identities
The Dedalus Foundation [New York, October 28]
Advisory & Field Work (selected, 2014-2019)
2019 Chamberlain Award & Residency Reviewer
Headlands Center for the Arts [Sausalito, California]
2019 Artist Fellowship Nominator
Apex Art [New York, New York]
2014-2020 Joyce Artist Award Selection Committee
The Joyce Foundation [Chicago, Illinois]
2017-2019 Artist Grant Nominator
Joan Mitchell Foundation [New York, New York]
2018 Van Lier Artist Fellowship Selection Committee
Asian American Arts Alliance [New York, New York]
2015 & 2018 Program Selection Committee, Open Engagement [Oakland & New York]
Board Appointments
2018 – present Founding Board Member, Art + Feminism Wikipedia {New York, New York]
2017-2018 Board Member, IDEA New Rochelle [New Rochelle, New York]
2005-2006 Board Member, Dog and Pony Theatre Company [Chicago, Illinois]