ANUPAM

ROY.COM

Bio

As a propagandist, I have dedicated my artistic practice to long-term, collective, and partisan engagement in territories peripheral to the metropolis, especially in northern India. For the past 15 years, I have been working closely with various land and labour movements. I participate in these resistances via prints, drawings, videos, and zines. To establish a more socially involved and politically based practice, my methodological approach consists of organizing and producing collaborative pieces. Through this process, I also experiment with making modules for collaboration and possible practices in collaborative creation.

Currently, a dominant “propaganda model” exists that supplements physical coercion with “manufactured consent.” The truth of contemporary reality lies within such much-censored narratives of violence and corporal suffering. The ethical and political task of the propagandist-artist is not merely to report or represent those from a comfortable outsider’s position but also to expose oneself to the same brutality while simultaneously transforming it.

Art, I envision, can create discursive spaces that aid in dismantling the hegemonic discourse of our present fascist-capitalist regime. These discursive spaces offer platforms for marginalized voices to express local concerns and contribute to the broader struggle for justice and equality. Towards that vision, and together with fellow artists and cultural activists, we have formed the ‘Panjeri Artists’ Union’ in West Bengal, India; Jinn, an independent publication; Khandera Art Space in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, India; and Locust Review, an international collective based in America.

All the works shared here are not predominantly made by me however, I am a part of these productions. My practice-led research/artistic creations are primarily a product of shared experiences, discussions, and actions with comrades and communities. Therefore, without my political milieu, the people with whom I am attached/engaged/in solidarity, and my union, this body of work could not have been conceived.