Knots, Props, and Holes

Please join us for a conversation between artist Sreshta Rit Premnath and curator-critic Murtaza Vali, presented in conjunction with the current exhibition, : The Mrinalini Mukherjee Archive in conversation with Sreshta Rit Premnath

Over the past decade, several of Sreshta Rit Premnath’s artistic projects have been defined by a practice of communing and dialoguing with predecessors, including Ludwig Wittgenstein, Edward Krasinski, André Cadere, and Koji Kamoji. Central to these projects is the negotiation of indexicality, where photographs and writing are the primary means of experiencing the work of these practitioners. In each project, the archive of the figure in question becomes a lens through which Premnath refracts formal, philosophical, and political questions relevant to his present context. 

Joined by curator and critic Murtaza Vali, Premnath will discuss this mode of working in the context of his commission at Asia Art Archive in America, a response to the archive of Indian sculptor Mrinalini Mukherjee. Together, Premnath and Vali will examine three conceptual anchors central to Premnath’s projects: The Knot: A structure that holds seemingly dissimilar ideas together; The Prop: A form that serves as a support or surrogate; and, The Hole: A concept that activates negative space. This discussion will shed light on Premnath’s practice of engaging with artistic legacy, while unpacking the philosophical and material connections that shape his work.

Participant Bios

Sreshta Rit Premnath is an artist from Bangalore living in Brooklyn. His recent installations, videos, and paintings have explored the interdependent relationship between bodies, and the architecture that supports and confines them. He has had solo exhibitions at venues including MIT List Visual Arts Center, Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver, and Nomas Foundation in Rome. He has an upcoming show at Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, this fall. He is the founding editor of Shifter, a platform that convened public discussions and produced topical publications at the intersection of art and theory from 2004-2021. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Williams College.

Murtaza Vali is a critic, curator, and art historian based in Brooklyn and Sharjah. His ongoing research interests include contemporary art around the Indian Ocean littoral; materialist art histories; ex-centric minimalisms; the weight of color; and ghosts and other figures of liminal subjectivities and repressed histories. A recipient of a 2011 Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for Short-Form Writing, he publishes regularly in art periodicals and exhibition catalogues for non-profit institutions and commercial galleries. Vali is an Adjunct Curator at the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai, where he organized the widely-acclaimed group exhibitions Crude (2018-19), which explored the relationship between oil and modernity across West Asia and North Africa, and Guest Relations (with Lucas Morin) (2023-24), a sequel exhibition examining hotels and the hospitality industry across the Global South. He is also the curator of Proposals for a Memorial to Partition, an itinerant research and curatorial platform investigating the lingering trauma and legacy of partitions in South Asia and beyond. First appearing in Manual for Treason, a publication commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 10 (2011), subsequent iterations of this project have been presented at the Jameel Arts Centre (2022-23) and Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia (2023).

Light refreshments will be provided.

AAAinA’s general programming and operations are funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council, the Vilcek Foundation, and other foundations and individuals.

Host or Publisher Asia Art Archive in America