Pragya Bhargava
Pragya Bhargava
Plus VAT if applicable
Deserted, 2020
Acrylic, pastels and charcoal on paper
109 x 193 cm
About this work
This work is a response to an ongoing series of workshops that explore how we form, exchange and influence earthly and cosmic landscape narratives through art. The lines, marks and colours are borrowed from the works of participants. Individual responses hold a firm place in the collective narrative formed within this reinterpretation. Synchronicity and resonance in the experience of and engagement with cosmic landscapes and earthly phenomenon are embodied within this work. It also marks the starting point of a cosmic allegory that follows in subsequent works from the series.
About Pragya Bhargava
Pragya Bhargava is a practicing artist, researcher and educator currently based in India. She graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) Degree from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore and a Bachelors of Science (Physics Major-First Division) from IGNOU. She has recently completed her MRes Fine Art and Humanities from Royal College of Art, London. Pragya’s research and practice reflects her interest in landscapes, time and distance.
Pragya Bhargava relies on her background in art and science to study landscapes as a function of time and distance. She is interested in finding material translations for the elements that impose their influence in shaping both earthly and cosmic landscapes and often looks at the intersection of materials and methods that include drawing, painting, photography and engagement with people.
The series in this display forefronts the latency of dark matter by elaborating on the missing mass of the Virial Theorem and the distortions due to gravitational lensing. The gap in these approaches is identified as the lack of comprehensive, material understanding of dark matter. But darkness is revealed by the light that surrounds it. Latency, materiality and distortions all have inherent parallels in painting. The tacit knowledge of making, the role of materials and the distortions of form can, not only embody the intricacies and latency of dark matter but also contribute to them. The artworks are a part of a research project where a composite practice-led methodology is adopted to shape the ambiguous critical context and explore a range of interpretive possibilities. The resulting paintings are thus a work of science fiction presenting a constellation of cosmic connections investigating the unseen and elusive web of dark matter in the universe.
Education
2019- 2020 Master of Research in Fine Art and Humanities from Royal College of Art, London
2015- 2018 Bachelors in Science (Physics Major) with First Division from IGNOU
2011- 2014 Bachelors in Fine Arts with First Class Honours from Lasalle College of the Arts (Goldsmith’s College, University of London)
1999- 2010 Sangeet Visharad Pratham Khand (Senior Diploma) in Kathak Classical Dance from Pracheen Kala Kendra, Delhi
Awards, Grants, Residencies
2020-2021 Artreach- Kiran Nadar Museum of Art Teaching Fellowship
2020 A Glass Envelope Residency
2012- 2014 Lasalle College of the Arts Scholarship
2013 Winston Oh Travel Practice Award
2009-2010 Kalashri Award for Fine Arts
2009 Karamveer Puraskar- National Award for Social Justice and Citizen Action
Exhibitions
2021
Research Biennale, RCA, London, UK
2020
Make it Public, Design Museum, London, UK
DIG, San Mei Gallery, London, UK
WIP Show, Dyson Gallery, London, UK
Community Art Installation for Reckitt Benckiser & Global Citizen, Delhi, India
2019
A Eulogy to Things that Never Were, Hyderabad India
2016
Gelb, Luzern, Switzerland
2014
Spot Art, ARTrium@MICA, Singapore
The LASALLE Show, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
2013
Spot Art, ARTrium@MICA, Singapore
The Winston Oh Travel Award, Singapore
Georgetown Arts Festival, Penang, Malaysia
The LASALLE Show, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
The Art of Greening, Singapore