Past Event
Working across film, photography, installation and performance, Indian artist Sonia Khurana discusses her practice, in which she weaves together personal histories and historical moments as a way to address representations of femininity and gender. She is joined in conversation by scholar and theorist Griselda Pollock.
Frequently dealing with themes of identity, the artist uses her own body in her performances. She places her first-hand experiences at the heart of her practice, and composes her works based on personal, and often autobiographical, references. Currently working in New Delhi, she draws on her artistic training in Europe and her experience of being a woman in an Indian context.
Sonia Khurana studied art in Delhi, and later at the Royal College of Art in London, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Her work has been shown in various biennales, notably the Aichi Triennale 2010, the Gwangju Biennale2008, Pusan Biennale 2004, and Liverpool Biennial 2010. Select museum shows include Brooklyn Musuem, Fukouka Museum of Asian Art, Japan, New York, National Gallery of modern Art, Bombay, Asia Society New York, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, PlayHouse Durban, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Henie Onstad Kunssenter, Oslo, KusthalleWien, Vienna, House of World Cultures, Berlin, IVAM, Valencia. She is based in New Delhi.
Griselda Pollock was born in South Africa, and educated in Canada and the UK. She holds a BA Hons in Modern History, University of Oxford 1970; an MA with Distinction in History of Art, Courtauld Institute, University of London 1972; and a PhD Courtauld Institute, University of London 1980. She has taught at Canterbury College of Art, Reading University, and University of Manchester. She came to the University of Leeds in 1977, where she is currently Director of Research and Professor of the Social & Critical Histories of Art; she was appointed Senior Lecturer in 1986 and Personal Chair in Social and Critical Histories of Art in 1990. She was Director of the Centre for Cultural Analysis from 1989-2000 and has been Director of AHRC Centre CATH since 2001.
