Abhishek Khedekar, Tamasha
18 Newman Street, London W1T 1PE
Abhishek Khedekar, the inaugural winner of the Loose Joints
and Mahler & LeWitt Studios residency and book award
Publishing Performance, supported by Webber, presents
an exhibition of work from his book Tamasha. Khedekar
uses sculpture, collage and reappropriation to capture the
synaesthesia of a rural Indian working-class spectacle.
Indian artist Abhishek Khedekar’s experimental docu-fiction
follows a 100-person nomadic troupe of Dalit ‘families’
performing Tamasha: a travelling form of performance
combining dance, music, and visual art dating back to
the 1800s. As post-independence India moved away from
rural dance and song forms, Tamasha became stigmatised,
polarised and relegated in Indian society. Criss-crossing
the state of Maharashtra, Khedekar’s images dive into the
complexity of this sociocultural fabric with a dizzying array
of artistic techniques by utilising archival material, collage,
documentary photography, performance, sound and video.
Khedekar’s bricolage of experimental visual narratives
elevates the make-do, unpretentious attitude of Tamasha
performance into a unique aesthetic of song, community
and expression: situating Tamasha’s traditions in modern
India.
Khedekar is the recipient of Publishing Performance 2022:
an artist’s residency and publishing award focused on the
intersections of photography and performance. The jury
comprised Luis Alberto Rodriguez, Chantal Webber and
Mahmoud ‘Mo’ Mfinanga. Khedekar developed his work
as artist-in-residence at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios in
Spoleto, Italy, for a book edited, designed and published by
Loose Joints.
