When: Thursday 30 January 5:30-7pm
Where: Studio A4 in Primary
Join us at Primary, Nottingham, for an in-conversation with artists Palani Kumar , Hairunisha Kasim Moulana, and Nicole Thiara, Raghavi Chinnadurai. Together, they will explore Palani and Nisha’s extensive photographic practice, delving into their personal journeys and reflections on projects addressing the issues around manual scavenging, “honour killings”, and the systemic exploitation of Working-class and Dalit communities. The conversation will try to reflect on the parallels between these structures of oppression and global post-colonial structures.
This event is a part of Primary’s Kolam exhibition and organised in collaboration with CADALFEST, and has been supported and produced by Joshua Lockwood-Moran.
There will be refreshments available during the event
Bios:
CADALFEST (Celebrating Adivasi and Dalit Arts and Literature Festival), a festival series organised by the network on Dalit and Adivasi literature, which is hosted by the Postcolonial and Global Studies research Group at Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK, and the research centre EMMA at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, France.
Hairunisha is a photographer and Young Artist from North Chennai and is currently pursuing a degree in Digital Journalism at Loyola College, Chennai. Raised by her single mother, she began volunteering with the Chennai Climate Action Group in 10th grade, where she advocated for environmental issues in North Chennai. In 2022, she attended a photography workshop by Palani Kumar, which ignited her passion for photography. She documented marginalised communities and their environmental challenges, later showcasing her work in the exhibition “Reframed-North Chennai.” This experience solidified her interest in photography as a career.
Palani Kumar: Hailing from the village of Jawaharlalpuram in Madurai district, Palani Kumar worked as a cinematographer for the critically acclaimed documentary [Kakoos]—a searing narrative on the lives of manual scavengers in Tamil Nadu. In a couple of years, Kumar put together his first photography exhibition—Naanum oru Kullanthai (I am a child too) in Chennai, featuring photographs of the children of manual scavengers. Since 2019, as a fellow of PARI (People’s Archive of Rural India), Kumar is currently documenting the lives of working-class women across India. Kumar is also associated with Pep Collective – a Forum of socially responsible photographers in Tamil Nadu.
Other accolades include ‘Imagining the Nation State’ grant from Chennai photo biennale, 2021 Amplify grant, The Samyak Drishti and Photo South Asia Grant. In 2022, he received the first Dayanita Singh-PARI Documentary Photography Award.
Dr Nicole Thiara is Co-lead of Nottingham Trent University’s Postcolonial and Global Studies Research Group and Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded Research Network Series ‘Writing, Analysing, Translating Dalit Literature’ and its Follow-on Grant ‘On Page and on Stage: Celebrating Dalit and Adivasi Literatures and Performing Arts’. She teaches postcolonial and contemporary literature at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her area of research is Dalit and diasporic South Asian literature and her current research project is on the representation of modernity in Dalit literature.
Joshua Lockwood-Moran is a curator and artist. He is currently Exhibitions Manager at Hub, Sleaford, a National Centre of Craft and Design and a freelance curator. Previously was Deputy Curator at Bonington Gallery, leading on exhibitions by Osheen Siva, Emily Andersen and Andrew Logan and Co-Director of TG gallery.
Raghavi Chinnadurai is currently the Associate Curator at Primary, a Tamil womxn interdisciplinary practitioner, an artist-curator from Thanjavur, TamilNadu, India. Raghavi completed her MA in Curating Contemporary Art at Royal College of Art, London as a RCA-Logitech Scholar. Her current research interest focuses on exploring the pedagogical possibilities of Kolam, indigenous South-Indian Tamil threshold design, and other embedded cultural practices in the Tamil community, as decolonial curatorial frameworks and methodologies.
Access:
This event will happen in Studio A4, with level access from our main entrance. You can find further access information on our website’s Visit Us page and via AccessAble. Please email admin@weareprimary.org or call 0115 924 4493 regarding access enquiries.