Photo Credit: Gautam Pemmaraju

Project Proposal: Complexities of Identity within Transnational Social Justice

This project uses intersecting modes of performance art, performance writing, Yoga and esoteric sonic traditions and classical musics of South Asian origin to explore notions of ‘the self’.

Led by lived experience, I specialise in experiments with the sonics, semantics, somatics and states of consciousness induced across these disciplines. My intention is to refute, compound, reimagine, disorient, poke fun at, heal and ultimately transcend the subjective and socially determined complexities of identity, within an intersectional context of social justice.

This project will consolidate my practice-led research into a multi-modal, autobiographical study of ‘the self’. Over a series of mandalam periods—41 days of self-practice between full moons in the Vedic astrological calendar—I will follow a daily ritual programme of Yoga, body-based and vocal performance, improvisational and durational exercises, and structured formal vocal practice. I will capture these experiences through text, audio recordings, scores for performance and drawings. My yoga practice will encompass asana, pranayama and dhyana in the Swami Sivananda lineage. I will focus on recitation and chant, the sonic-science of the Sanskrit alphabet, and meditation techniques in which the breath is retained over significant periods to induce an elevated state of consciousness.

My riyaz practice is in the field of Dhrupad, an ancient system of North Indian classical music predominantly sung in syllables derived from Sanskrit. I am under the tutelage of Pandit Uday Bhawalkar.

My emphasis on South-Asian classical and esoteric traditions is also artistically informed by lineages of North American & Northern European performance art, choreographic and experimental music practices.

My vision for this project is an embodied, practice-led, transnational study that operates across divergent ideological, philosophical, pedagogical and cultural systems. It will be applied as therapeutic, restorative work across personal, community and social justice settings.