ARA Podcast - Where do you look for lost water?

Arts Research Africa Dialogues

Where do you look for lost water? - Artistic research, arts pedagogy, and environmental politics in the Global South. A dialogue between Prof Atul Bhalla and Prof David Andrew. Held on Wed 10 October CNS Smart Seminar Room, 1st Floor, Solomon Mahlangu House.
The recent ARA Artist in Residence in The Wits School of Arts, Athul Bhalla, is in dialogue with David Andrew about the experience of creating his installation Looking for Lost Water (Explorations at the Cradle) for the Watershed Conference, and the challenges of artistic research and arts teaching from a global South perspective. [PLEASE NOTE: Atul Bhalla's audio was recorded using a Skype feed from New Dehli. The poor sound quality was due to network problems during the recording.]
Atul Bhalla is Associate Professor, Department of Art Design and Performing Arts, Shiv Nadar University, Dehli. Professor Bhalla is a conceptual artist whose work has been exhibited widely in the US, the Pompidou Centre, Paris, Valencia, Spain, London, Shahjar and India. Professor Bhalla spent time in Johannesburg in 2012 as a fellow of the Nirox Foundation, exploring in particular illegal mining and water sources around the city. In 2018 he returned to Johannesburg to further this research project by creating his installation for the "Watershed: Art, Science and Elemental Politics" Conference at Wits.
David Andrew is Associate Professor and Head of the Division of Visual Arts at the Wits School of Arts. He studied at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, (BA Fine Arts 1985) and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, (H Dip Ed (PG) 1986; PhD 2011). He is an artist and lectures in Fine Arts and Arts Education courses. HIs current research interests include the tracking of histories of arts education in South Africa and southern Africa more broadly; the Another Road Map School international research project; and the reimagining of the arts school and artistic research in the context of the Global South.