PROJECT HIGHIGHTS offers a curated selection of projects that I have either initiated or in which I have actively participated. Whether as an initiator or a contributor, these projects collectively highlight the multifaceted nature of my practice.

BOOKMARK EXHIBITION

The Central Saint Martins library showcased research-in-progress of 17 doctoral researchers working across disciplines at CSM. To BOOKMARK is draw attention to a moment in our PhD journeys, a page or paragraph highlighted in bright marker or marginalia that we may return to again and again. This is the third instalment of an annual showcase of doctoral research at CSM. The aim was to provoke, inform and generate conversations within and beyond the postgraduate community. The work was shown across vitrines and video monitors, and a series of printed bookmark interventions hidden in books on the shelves of Central Saint Martins Library.

UPCOMING: The Feeling in My Tongue is an interdisciplinary exhibition featuring six practice-based doctoral candidates at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts. The exhibition showcases their ongoing research projects through various media such as textile, sound,sculpture, installation, performance, and moving images and offers to explore our own individual perception of their works. How does our engagement with sensorial, auditory or tactile based on our lived experiences or impairment evoke sensations and emotional responses in our bodies? We invite you to investigate how the subjective process of perception and engagement is influenced by one's accumulated life experiences and how such interactions manifest in physical responses within the observer's corporeal and experiential dimensions.

Invited by Kunsthalle Tbilisi to conduct an eight-week workshop titled "New Strategies in Critical thinking and writing about Contemporary Art"

Dates: 20th January 2021 - 20th March 2021

ZOO HORSE - Collecting a digital archive

Showing my husband, then-boyfriend, a collection of my childhood photographs, I came across one of a four-year-old me on a papier-mâché horse in Tbilisi Zoo.

I was born in Tbilisi in the 1980s, back when the country was still a part of the Soviet Union. Visiting the zoo was a special event for me: it meant that I would get a Plombir ice cream, a cup of sparkling gazirovka (a non-alcoholic sparkling beverage), and a ride on an amusement ride adjacent to the premises. But the highlight of the day would always be getting the chance to sit on the papier-mâché horse that looked like it had galloped from a merry-go-round ride. I remember being helped onto the horse, filled with anticipation and excitement at having my photo taken, but also overcome with shyness in front of the photographer

Revisiting the childhood memory made me curious to learn more about this papier-mâché horse and the person behind the camera. I embarked on my search for the photographer only to find the Tbilisi Zoo holds no archive. After much digging around, and enquiring on social media, I found out that Victor Sukiasov (1930-2017) was the unsung photographer in question.

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TATE MODERN, 2018

Reimagine the role of the arts in an age of rapid technological change and explore how, through the arts, we can move beyond everyday consumption and technology as a spectacle. Together let’s challenge the mainstream, say the unsaid and address inclusion, integration and the production of technology in our lives, society, work, education – and in the arts.

The Digital Maker Collective and invited guest contributors/makers from across the globe will transform Tate Exchange into a large public tech innovation studio, a space to get hands-on with technology exploration and rapid prototyping, and discover new forms of collaborative digital making experimentation.

For more Information and details of the week-long programme please visit: http://digitalmakercollective.org and the #artsworkofthefuture hashtag.

This event is programmed by Digital Maker Collective, a Tate Exchange Associate.

TATE MODERN, 2018

On Friday 26 January 2018 the Digital Maker Collective were invited to activate the 4th Floor Boiler House, Tate Modern as part of Uniqlo Tate Late event, which this month was programmed in collaboration with the Tate Exchange Associates.
AI group intervention had two interactive installations: The first was a recorded holographic installation that gave a short description of all the various activities being shown by the Digital Makers Collective at the Tate
Late event. The second intervention was a mock robot that directly interacts with the audience initiating a dialogue on technological production and its impact on our lives.

UNOFOLDING: FROM IDEAS INTO PRACTICE, Ria Keburia Foundation

"Unfolding: from Ideas into Practice" is a series of workshops and talks that engage emerging artists in conversations about the critical relationship to creative practices.

Vija Skangale