About

Like cupping water with their hands

Curated by Anushka Rajendran 

Like cupping water with their hands will feature artists working with the format of a book to enable their narratives to temporally endure in the public domain, beyond the lifespans presented by available alternatives, such as an exhibition of their works. While these publishing efforts may also be considered to be archival practices, all the exhibited artists depart from the primary focus of their artistic practices to speak to the urgencies emerging from their encounters with collectivities, their solidarities and their collaborations. These publications explore the possibilities—however limited they may be quantitatively—of independent, alternative circuits and modes of production, that lend existence to each of them in the hope for wider access to various publics.

Yet with even more lucidity, these publications encompass counter-memories that resist grand accounts of history, identity and politics, as well as mainstream archives retained and remembered by dominant apparatuses of power/agents such as the state, law, and media that construct and dictate public memory singularly. These ‘petit narratives’ hold memory with care  in the face of erasure, from the secular re-articulations of mythology, indigenous forms, folklore to fearless calls for resistance and everyday assertions of resilience. From their own political positions, these publications point towards generative possibilities and perspectives that were meant to be latent but flourish in these radical articulations. Several of them are out of print today, but not by choice. They are all unlimited editions, timeless in spirit that may continue to be re-published, and remain relevant to readers.

Artist Publications

Bhupen Khakhar | Bhupen Khakhar, 2001 (Katha)

Bombay Underground Zines (Aqui Thami and Himanshu S.) | Zines (various titles) (Bombay Underground)

Chandan Gomes | In this World of Dew, 2011-15 (Photoink)

Dayanita Singh | Myself Mona Ahmed, 2001 (Scalo)

KG Subramanyan | Selected titles of children’s books and essays (Seagull Books)

Khirkee Voice | Various editions (KHOJ) 

Nilima Sheikh and Suniti Namjoshi | Blue and Other Stories, 2014 (Tulika Publishers)

Pushpamala N in collaboration with Clare Arni | Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs, 2000-2004 (Nature Morte) 

Ronny Sen | End of Time, 2017 (Nazar Foundation)

Sohrab Hura | Coast, 2019 (Self-published)

Somnath Hore | Tebhaga (reprint), 2019 (Seagull Books)

Subhash Vyam, Srividya Natarajan, S. Anand, Durgabai Vyam | Bhimayana: Incidents in the Life of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, 2011 (Navayana Publishers)

Sunil Gupta | We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography and Cultural Difference, 2022 (Aperture)

Queer Muslim Futures: A Collection of Visions, Utopias and Dreams | The Queer Muslim Project, 2021 (Queer Muslim Project)

Thukral and Tagra | Weeping Farm (book and gameplay), 2022 (Om publishers)

Vasudha Thozhur | Vasudha Thozhur: Diaries, Projects, Pedagogy, 1998-2018 (Tulika Books)

Vidyun Sabhaney | First Hand: Graphic Narratives from IndiaI and II, 2016/2018 (Yoda Press)