Darshana Vora
I am a conceptual artist with a multi-disciplinary practice.
I work across media from drawing and installation to moving image, sound and digital works. I am inspired by the urban fabric of the city, people and places, often appropriating signs, symbols and rituals from daily routines. News, communication, advertisements - seep into my visual language. Responding to special events by using these interfaces has become a preoccupation in the last few years. This helps document and mark a public sentiment in time, and allows me to connect with place, memory and agency in a concrete way.
A deep-rooted interest in Buddhist philosophy and practice lend an Eastern aesthetic to my works and working processes. My works have a spatial, architectonic, temporal and lyrical quality, often resonating silence, emptiness and flow.
DARSHANA VORA
I am a London (UK) based conceptual artist working in site specific, moving image and digital art genres.
https://darshanavora.portfoliobox.net/
solo exhibitions
2012 ‘Mind Mirror’ The Loft gallery, Mumbai, India
2008 ‘Walks in Silence’ Video installation/projection at Novas Contemporary Urban Centre, London. Part of London Festival of Architecture 2008
2002 ‘Vision Repositories and Holes’ Lakeeren art gallery, Mumbai
2001 ‘Horizon ll’ 200 Gertrude Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia
1999 ‘Engaging the NOWHERE’ The British Council Gallery, Mumbai
1999 ‘Solid Objects’ Performance with artist’s video The British Council Gallery, Mumbai
1997 ‘nothing blue about it’, Experiential Environment & multi – media works The British Council Gallery, Mumbai Preview at Sans Tache Gallery, Mumbai
1997 Movement 1, 2 and 3 Site Specific Works in Heritage Sites in Mumbai
group participation
2023
DOUBLE EXPOSURE - A Duo show with Tina Crawford at Exhibition Space at Kindred Studios.
https://www.calameo.com/books/0063168417d61adbc94d6
BIO - GRAPH, Exhibition at West End Centre, Aldershot, UK
2022
Relational Dreams - The Disjunction of Aesthetic Forms and their Opposites
The Bhavan, London.
Hounslow Art Trail
2021
The Dawn of Aquarius, Lakeeren Art Gallery.
2020
Alternative Art Education (Slow) Marathon
2019
VAICA Festival of Video Art by Indian Contemporary Artists (https://vaica.org/)
2017
'Brink' 31-33 Church St, Marylebone, London
2015
'Mind|Mirror' screening at the May 2015 edition of the Video festival at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, curated by Gaytri Sinha. Mumbai, India
'VisionMix Artists, Filmmakers and Curators’ Workshop' produced in partnership with Shiv Nadar University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, School of Arts and Aesthetics, the British Council and the Goethe Institute/ Max Mueller Bhavan. Delhi, India (https://www.visionmix.info/)
2013
‘The City Walking Bazaar’ – Curated by Motiroti and Cass Business School, London, UK
‘Re: Renewal – Framing Transition in the Indian Landscape’ - curated by Pujan Gandhi and Janice Pariat. London UK (https://pujankgandhi.wordpress.com/)
2010
‘The Home and The World’ Contemporary Photography - Aicon Gallery, New York, USA (http://prod-images.exhibit-e.com/www_aicongallery_com/75374ca8.pdf)
Wirksworth Festival, September – Participation in Salon screening of 2 films and single screening of ‘Walks in Silence’, UK
‘The home and the world’ Aicon Gallery, NY
Last Friday Shorts curated by Michaela Freeman at TAP Gallery in Southend on Sea. (http://www.t-a-p.org.uk/last-friday-shorts.html#)
2010
‘Holding Time’, Bhavan Centre, London, UK (https://issuu.com/artexhibitions/docs/holding_time_exhibition_at_the_bhavan_centre_uk)
2009
‘What the body remembers – South Asian Video Art today’- curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala (part of Asain Art in London 2009) Bhavan Centre, London, UK
‘Underground City’ at DIVUS unit 30, London, UK
‘The Other (Indian) Story’, curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, Mumbai, India (https://issuu.com/lakeeren/docs/the_other_indian_story_catalogue)
Femlink – online website/women artists video collage
2008
‘GHost’ , Bethnal Green Church, London, curated by Ricarda Vidal & Sarah Sparks. London. UK (https://www.ghosthostings.co.uk/the-belfry/ghost/)
2008 ‘Intermittent Light festival’, Durham, UK - installation of ‘walks in silence’ in urban walk
‘Multifidelity’ Theatre-collaboration with Christopher Engdahl. Laban, UK
‘Fields of Detail – Dance Installation’, Collaboration with Melita Spahic, London & Croatia
‘visions in the nunnery’ 2008, Bow Arts trust, London, UK (https://bowarts.org/nunnery/visions-nunnery-1)
2007
‘visions in the nunnery’, Bow Arts trust,London, UK
‘blowing up’ – Clerkenwell film festival, London, UK
‘Fields of Detail – Dance Installation’, at the Place for Dance, London, UK
2006
‘Fields of Detail – Dance Installation’, Collaboration with Choreographer Melita Spahic, UK
‘Max 10 video festival’, Café Gallery, London, UK
no.w.here screening at Archetypes, London, UK
‘Rites/ Rights/Rewrites – Women’s video art from India’. Rutgers University, USA
‘node.L’ at the nunnery, Bow arts Trust, UK
‘monitor 2’ and ‘Images Fest 2006’- artist’s video screening, Toronto, USA (https://www.savac.net/monitor-2/)
2005
‘The Haunting’, Manchester, UK
‘Art in Romnney Marsh’, UK
‘Simultan 100 seconds’ – video festival in Timosara
‘The Art of Permanence and Change’ - Sydenham Woods, Forest Hill, UK
‘Grounds for Designs’ - Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, UK
‘Rites/ Rights/Rewrites - Women’s video art from India’. Duke University, USA
2004
‘13 Apparitions’, Eden Restaurant, Harrow, UK
‘The Secret Garden’ – outdoor group exhibition, UK
'What’s that in the woods?’ Millfield House, Edmonton
‘Return to sender’ – Newcastle-upon-Tyne
‘Rites, Rights, Rewrites – Women’s video art from India’, Cornell University, USA (http://www.geocities.ws/indianartexhibit/pressrelease.html)(http://www.geocities.ws/indianartexhibit/darshana.html)
2003
‘De Inrichting’ – group exhibition in Heiloo, Amsterdam
Group Exhibition – Sakshi Gallery – India
Peace Taxi, SAVAC, Toronto (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gChP6B7ZXwg)
‘MoDA Outsized’, Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture, UK. 2002
Sakshi Gallery- 10th Anniversary Show, New Delhi,
India Info offspring, ‘City Boogie Woogie’, Dresden, Germany – curated by Cristiane Mennick
‘Camouflage’, The Nehru Centre, London (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09528820108576948)
2000
‘Ideas and Images’, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India
‘Anonymously Yours’ – Lakeeren Art Gallery and The British Council Gallery, Mumbai, India
‘The Mumbai Metaphor’,The Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai, India
‘The Secret Life of Objects’ Lakeeren Art Gallery at the Kala Ghoda Art Festival, Mumbai, India
‘Kala Ghoda – A Meeting Place’ Collaboration between Artists & Architects, Gallery Chemould
1999
‘Ideas and Images’, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai
‘Young Artists 1999’, National Gallery of Modern Art
‘Wallpaper’ Lakeeren Art Gallery at the Kala Ghoda Art Festival
1998
‘Miniature Format Show 3’, Sans Tache Art Gallery
‘1997’, Sans Tache Art Gallery
other
2021- 2022
Member of Theatrum Mundi Research Cohort
https://theatrum-mundi.org/project/tmcohort/
2019- 2020
Member of Radical Pedagogy Research and Reading Group (https://videomole.tv/radical-pedagogy/)
2019
Member of Art and Critique, London (https://videomole.tv/artandcritique/)
2015
Presenter and participant at 'VisionMix Artists, Filmmakers and Curators’ Workshop' produced in partnership with Shiv Nadar University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, School of Arts and Aesthetics,The British Council and the Goethe Institute/ Max Mueller Bhavan. Delhi, India (https://www.visionmix.info/)
2013
Panelist in discussion on ‘Monitor 9′ , video programme by SAVAC at no.w.here. London UK
2011
Curated an International art conference 'Art outside the White Cube', The Bhavan, UK. (https://issuu.com/artexhibitions/docs/e-_conf._booklet)
2010
Curated an International art conference 'The Business of Art', The Bhavan, UK (https://issuu.com/artexhibitions/docs/boa_conference_cataloguepdf)
Curated 'Holding Time' The Bhavan, UK (https://issuu.com/artexhibitions/docs/holding_time_exhibition_at_the_bhavan_centre_uk)
2008
Selection and Organising team for ‘Visions in the nunnery’, International open call for film/video, Bow Arts Trust, UK
2007
Selection and Organising team for ‘Visions in the nunnery’, International open call for film/video, Bow Arts Trust, UK
2007 Director for short film, ‘A Silent Colour’, Producer: Trevor Hughes, Script: Emma Ahmad.
2007
Visual artist in collaborative dance project- ‘Fields of Detail – Dance Installation’, at the Place for Dance, London
2007
Delivered Artist’s talk on ‘contemporary video artists in India’ at the New Art Exchange, Nottingham
2004
Big Arts Week – Artist with Kingsley High School (special needs), Harrow.
awards
2001
Unesco – Aschberg Bursaries for Artists. Artist’s residency and exhibition. 200 Gertrude Street Studios, Melbourne, Australia, Jan – March 2001