Artalaap

About Artalaap

Delve into the discourse around the aesthetics, politics, and infrastructure of visual art. Artalaap is a podcast on visual culture focusing on modern & contemporary art from the South Asian subcontinent. Art critic Kamayani Sharma interviews artists, curators, writers, researchers, arts organisation professionals, and culture workers. Come for the images, stay for the insights!

Publisher

Artalaap

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

29 Dec 2020

Latest episode

11 Aug 2025

Latest episodes

23 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Aug 2025

   Ep 21: Vestibular Criticism ft. Geraldine Tedder

   On this special Artalaap episode, Kamayani Sharma speaks to Kunsthalle Winterthur director Geraldine Tedder about writing and curating practices through the metaphor of the vestibular system. They talk about how criticism and curating can help stabilise and situate ourselves in the contemporary, and about the many forms that the relationships between writing, speaking and listening can take. Through of all this, they reflect together on how repairing, caring and loving can be modes of creatingknowledge. OUR GUEST Geraldine Tedder is a curator and writer based in Zürich. She is director of Kunsthalle Winterthur. CREDITS This episode was produced as part of the Art Writers’Award 2024 residency at Villa Sträuli, Winterthur with the support of Pro Helvetia and TAKE On Art magazine. Producer: Square Wave Studios, New Delhi Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee Special thanks: Merly Knörle Izquierdo, Nicole Bachmann, Damian Christinger, Bibliotheken Winterthur Additional support: Raghav Sagar Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CCBY-NC 4.0] LINKS Geraldine Tedder — 'You Are Probably Completely Oblivious That This Text Actually Is About You', 2020. https://brand-new-life.org/b-n-l/you-are-probably-completely-oblivious-that-this-text-actually-is-about-you/ (https://brand-new-life.org/b-n-l/you-are-probably-completely-oblivious-that-this-text-actually-is-about-you/) — 'Notes on Furniture' in collaboration with Chantal Kaufmann, audiobook, 2020. Kamayani Sharma — 'Loving with Language: Reflections on Writing Alongside Art', 2019. https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/19952/uploads/eb1d39a0-fa71-4665-bf97-6af6ec3740c1.pdf (https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/19952/uploads/eb1d39a0-fa71-4665-bf97-6af6ec3740c1.pdf) — Book review of Arshi Ahmadzai's 'Nafas: Isolation Diaries', TAKE On Art [South Asia], 2024. https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/19952/uploads/853acf00-eedd-4c65-b232-f7b10aaa46c4.pdf (https://media.journoportfolio.com/users/19952/uploads/853acf00-eedd-4c65-b232-f7b10aaa46c4.pdf) — Artalaap Ep. 17: Tales of Silence, podcast, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Ee8hbSAE8DzWASUhrlkLc?si=E2YY4HctRSSg1z3hY6KK6Q (https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Ee8hbSAE8DzWASUhrlkLc?si=E2YY4HctRSSg1z3hY6KK6Q) Other Art Writers’ Award 2024 blog for TAKE On Art magazine: ⁠https://takeonartmagazine.com/blog/⁠ (https://takeonartmagazine.com/blog/) Kunsthalle Winterthur: ⁠https://kunsthallewinterthur.ch/⁠ (https://kunsthallewinterthur.ch/) CONTENTS 00:00 – Introduction & Context 02:00 – Defining ‘Vestibular’ & Episode Themes 03:00 – Writing, Orality, and Critical Positions 08:00 – Orality as Challenge to Print Culture 12:00 – Performativity, Misinformation & Media Forms 15:00 – Podcasting as Critical Practice 18:45 – Curatorial Conversations & Gossip as Subversion 21:45 – Oral Histories & Restoring Lost Voices 24:30 – Care in Curating & Opening Processes 28:30 – Breaking Down Curatorial Authority 29:45 – Spatial Metaphors & the Vestibular 36:45 – Erotics, Love, and Reparative Reading 42:00 – The Transcript as Inter-Script 45:00 – Collaborative Writing & Challenging Structures 46:45 – Demystifying Institutional Realities 48:00 – Closing & Reflections Click here (https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-21) to access the full list of works cited and time-stamped contents summaries.

2. 

   18 Aug 2024

   Ep 20: Portrait of a Citizen - '2024: Notes from a Generation'

   On this Artalaap episode, Kamayani Sharma speaks to Prarthna Singh and writer Snigdha Poonam about their multimedia project 2024: Notes from a Generation. In five years, the two artists travelled all over India photographing and interviewing people between the ages of 18 and 25, who would vote the national elections of 2024. We talk about how to conduct photoshoots and interviews with a diverse swathe of Gen Z Indians from all over the country, what it means to assemble and frame an audiovisual archive of citizens and why hope was so central to this long-term project of seeing and listening. Click here (https://sites.google.com/view/artalaap-podcast-resources/episode-20) to access the Image Guide. OUR GUESTS Prarthna Singh’s work explores questions of feminine identity and gender, especially as it intersects with the fraught politics of nationalism in contemporary India. Her work has appeared in publications worldwide including TIME, The New York Times, The Guardian and the BBC. She has exhibited internationally, most recently at the National Portrait Gallery, London. Her self-published book, Har Shaam Shaheen Bagh: One Hundred Days of Resistance was named one of the best photo books of 2022 by LensCulture. Snigdha Poonam is a journalist and writer investigating trends in India's politics, culture, and society. She has worked for The Hindustan Times and The Caravan in Delhi, and The Hindu in Bangalore. Her articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist, Granta, The Atlantic, CNN, and The Financial Times. Released in 2018, her first book, Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing Their World, has won awards and nominations worldwide. CREDITS Producer: Squarewave Studios, New Delhi Images courtesy Prarthna Singh Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee Promo artwork: Jasper Levi Additional support: Raghav Sagar & Anu Balasubramaniam Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0] CONTENTS 00:00 - 00:37 Welcome to the episode. 00:37 – 01:02 Image Guide link. 01:02 - 03:34 Introduction 03:34 - 07:48 How did the project begin? 07:49 - 14:57 Organising the logistics of photoshoots & interviews 14:58 - 20:57 The politics of the photographic portrait in the era of the selfie. 20:58 – 23:22 Developing portraits through words. 23:23 – 26:47 Frames of citizenship and listening in. 26:48 – 31:15 Excerpts and comments about the audio clips of soundscapes from the exhibition. 31:15 – 33:30 Matters of trust. 31:31 - 35:43 The temporality of the portrait. 35:44 – 38:25  What’s next for the series? 38:35 – 39:28 – Closing comments by the host. REFERENCES Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography, 2008. Snidgha Poonam, Dreamers, 2018. Kamayani Sharma, "Prarthna Singh: 100 Days of Resistance", Aperture, Summer 2021. https://archive.aperture.org/article/2021/2/2/prarthna-singh (https://archive.aperture.org/article/2021/2/2/prarthna-singh)

3. 

   22 Sept 2022

   Ep 19: Family Archives - 'Film Pictorial' (1941-1947)

   On this Artalaap episode, I, Kamayani speak to Jayant Parashar about his family's legacy -- a pre-Independence film magazine called Film Pictorial, started in Lahore by his grandfather and great-uncle, RK Parashar and ML Parashar. A well-regarded periodical of the 1940s, Film Pictorial shut down once the brothers moved to Delhi after the 1947 Partition. We talk about how Jayant came across the magazine, its role -- similar to other high-profile film publications of that era -- as a snapshot of South Asia's urban cinema culture straddling India and Pakistan's Independence as well as the scattershot, digital preservation of lost archives through which we reconstruct and respond to that era. LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR GUEST HERE: Jayant Parashar is a Mumbai-based cinematographer and musician. Film Pictorial (1941-1947) was an English-language magazine on Hindustani cinema co-founded and edited by his grandfather and great-uncle in Lahore. Credits: Producer: Squarewave Studios, New Delhi Executive Producer: Kanishka Sharma Production Associate: Priya Thakur Images courtesy Jayant Parashar via Surjit Singh Design & artwork: Mohini Mukherjee Marketing: Dipalie Mehta Additional support: Raghav Sagar Patreon support: Shalmoli Halder Audio courtesy: Vernouillet by Blue Dot Sessions [CC BY-NC 4.0] CONTENTS 0.00-02.30 – Introduction 02.30- 07.40– Discovering a family legacy. 07.40- 15.00 – Back issues of Film Pictorial on the internet. 15.00 - 18.51 – The Parashar brothers and their engagement with the pre-Independence film industry. 18.51 - 27.34 – The wide range of topics the magazine has explored, both serious and light-hearted versus the present day reporting on the film industry. 27.34- 31.37 – Film Pictorial after the Partition, and the value of vintage film magazines in the present. 31.37- 33.28 – How family legacies impact worldviews.

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YouTube views

1,315

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

10 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 56 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

72

Social presence

0

YouTube

68

Engagement

32

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.