ActionSpace artist Pardip Kapil undertook a three month residency at Studio Voltaire as part of the Explorers Project
ActionSpace artist Pardip Kapil undertook a three-month residency at Studio Voltaire, in partnership with ActionSpace. The residency formed part of the acclaimed Explorers Project. In collaboration with ActionSpace, Studio Voltaire provided the site for Pardip to develop his practice and the much needed space and time to focus on experimentation. The residency also provided Pardip with support from staff, production support, external visits and travel expenses, artist fees and a production budget.
Pardip worked with lead artist-mentor Solomon Garçon, who met regularly with Pardip over the three months to experiment and provide support and expertise. Pardip also met with Studio Voltaire’s Directors, curators and other artists to develop his practice over the residency. This residency was open-ended and culminated in a final event as part of Open House 2022 at Studio Voltaire.
During his residency, Kapil was supported by artist-mentors Pete Gomes, Richard Phoenix, Solomon Garçon, Emily Rees-Haynes, Louis Caseley and Shelly Davies, whose expertise developed new approaches to processes, materials and tools.
From the Residency
Pardip worked twice a week in his dedicated residency studio. Constructing installations, drawings, film projections and performances, Pardip experimented with a new body of work.
About Pardip Kapil
Pardip Kapil’s practice is part installation, part happening. He creates spontaneous, site specific, temporary structures and scenes which frequently evolve with the artist as central to the work. He combines installation and impromptu performance with his eccentric hand made costumes and props, found objects, music and projections to create multilayered experiences and moments. Essential to his practice is the public who are invited to engage with and often become part of the work. He explores the recurrent themes of celebrations, Christmas, Discos and FunFairs; reworking his ideas into many varied layouts whilst responding to the environment he’s working in. He documents his work through film and photography, recording the people and himself in his spaces often reworking the footage and images back into the next happening. Pardip’s energetic, often surreal practice is infectious and pure creativity. Since 2010 Kapil has led multiple live art events through ActionSpace’s Live Art programme including ‘Pop Up Pardip’ 2018 and ‘Tubelines’ 2019, Tate Exchange, Tate Modern and Pop Up Pardip’s Zoom Disco, Wandsworth Arts Fringe 2021.
About Solomon Garçon
Solomon Garçon is a visual artist living in London. His creative practice focuses on photography, sound and performance. Creating narratives around myths and the transformational body, Solomon has performed solo and in different collaborative settings at Auto Italia (London), Kampnagel (Hamburg), Café OTO (London) and The South London Gallery (London). Solomon is a current recipient of the LOEWE FOUNDATION / Studio Voltaire Award.
About Explorers
Explorers is a dynamic collaborative programme of art and action that opens up routes into artistic practice for neurominorities, dismantling attitudinal and systemic barriers to representation and rights in art and society. It is led by Project Art Works and is in partnership with ActionSpace, Autograph, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Intoart, MK Gallery, Outside In, Photoworks and Venture Arts. The Explorers Project is supported by Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
www.explorersproject.org
@Explorers__Project #ExplorersProject
About Studio Voltaire
Studio Voltaire is one of the UK’s leading not–for–profit arts organisations. Its pioneering public programmes of exhibitions, participation projects, live events and offsite commissions have gained an international reputation. The organisation has an outstanding track record of supporting artists at a pivotal stage in their careers, championing emerging and underrepresented practices and placing emphasis on risk–taking and experimentation.
www.studiovoltaire.org
Top photo: Pardip Kapil, ‘Part of It’, Tooting Market, 2012. Courtesy the Artist and ActionSpace.
Related exhibitions
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Pop up Pardip 2016
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