Arpita Shah awarded residency

Each year, Autograph teams up with Light Work in Syracuse, New York to send an artist on a one month residency to focus on their photographic practice. The programme has been running since 1996. 

Participants use their time to pursue personal projects; photographing in the area, printing for a specific project, or developing an exhibition or publication. They are provided with travel expenses, a stipend for living and production expenses, private darkroom, an apartment and 24-hour access to Light Work’s photo and computer lab facilities.

During her time in Syracuse, Arpita Shah will be developing her Nalini series into a publication. Nalini combines photography, installation, archival family photographs and found objects to interrogate the personal and cultural issues around migration, displacement and colonialism found within the South Asian Diaspora.

Looking into her own family history, Nalini centres on Arpita's mother, grandmother and herself - exploring the intimacy, distance and tensions between generations of women that have grown up and lived across various continents and cultures. Nalini is Shah’s grandmother’s name, which in ancient Sanskrit translates to lotus flower, symbolizing the womb, fertility and rebirth.

Arpita's residency will take place in September 2019, and we'll share the results on the Autograph Blog.

In the meanwhile, see Arpita Shah’s exhibition Purdah – The Sacred Cloth at our gallery in Shoreditch, London, on until 3 November 2018.