‘Drawing thoughts together’: Indian artists’ reflections on the post-millennial Indian graphic narratives scene

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the findings of a research-orientated artists’ drawing workshop (‘Drawing Thoughts Together’) held at South Asian University (New Delhi) in March 2018. The half-day drawing workshop explored three research questions, producing individual ‘graphic narrative’ pieces as outputs from the activity. The workshop participants discussed ideas of ‘post-millennial Indian modernity’ as depicted by Indian graphic narratives which have all been published since 2000 as well as ‘post-millennial Indian modernity’ as lived experience by the participants themselves. The eight artists participating in the workshop were requested to engage with the research questions through illustrative practice since they are (all) practitioners of graphic narratives; additionally, as the researcher, I was keen to anchor the object of enquiry into the process of enquiry. The paper discusses the broader research context of Indian graphic narratives and the particular practice-based research methodology adopted for this piece of work, along with the findings and learnings of the workshop.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian graphic narratives
• Indian post-millennial visuality
• practice as research

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr Ankur Datta for agreeing to host the workshop at South Asian University. Many thanks to all the workshop participants for attending and producing the artwork reproduced here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. See also the work of McLain (2009).

2. See also the work of Jain (2000).

3. See Rao, Geetha, and Wolf (2001) An ideal boy: Charts from India.

4. South Asian University is supported by the eight SAARC member states, see: http://sau.int/about/about-sau.html .

5. All eight participants are under the age of 40, the majority between 25 and 35.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

E. Dawson Varughese

E. Dawson Varughese’s research explores artistic and literary responses to post-millennial ‘New India’. She publishes on Indian genre fiction in English, Indian graphic narratives, domestic Indian book cover design and public wall art in Mumbai. Her most recent book was published in 2018 by Palgrave, entitled Visuality and Identity in post-millennial Indian graphic narratives.

An independent scholar, she divides her time between the UK and India. She is currently a Senior Fellow at Manipal Centre for Humanities, Manipal, India and has recently been a Visiting Fellow at the University of Delhi (2017 and 2018). See her work at seeingnewindia.com and beyondthepostcolonial.com.