ARTISTIC PRACTICE


Sonia Mehra Chawla has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer, and researcher. Working at the intersection of art and science, her practice explores notions of ecology, sustainability, and conservation through a multispecies lens. Sonia works in a variety of mediums, such as printmaking, photography, drawing, video, and the transmedia installation.

Through her multidisciplinary practice, Sonia explores and examines the multifaceted relationship between colonial power and scientific knowledge, providing insights into botanical politics and conflicts, the often-overlooked histories of colonial capitalism, and the challenges of our possible future(s). Her works often question and destabilize colonial legacies, constructs, and entanglements, exploring new ways of seeing through embodied memories. Sonia’s practice is process-oriented and research-based, with a focus on specific locations and microhistories. Through her artistic projects, she examines how local places contribute to global changes, what drives those changes, how these contributions change over time, how and where scale matters, what are the interactions between macrostructures and micro agencies, and how efforts at mitigation and adaptation can be locally initiated and adopted.

In addition, Sonia’s practice marks her close engagement with the present and future of India’s coastal ecosystems and mangrove forests. Her practice combines a commitment to the processes of research with fidelity to the poetics of the artwork, bringing together a variety of impulses, ranging from microscopic details of bacterial and microbial cultures to documentary cinematic studies of marginalized groups whose eco-sensitive occupations have suffered as a result of the decline in their environment.

Sonia’s work is often a result of sustained collaborations with scientific institutions, research institutions, cultural organizations, and nonprofit organizations in India, as well as interactions with fishing communities, agricultural and farming communities, and tribal and indigenous people of India. Through her practice, Sonia Mehra Chawla explores, dissects, re-examines, and re-envisions spaces that exist at the intersection of art and science, social and natural history, self and the other, focusing on the essential dimensions of human engagement with and within nature, ranging from the built-environment to the wilderness, while exploring human and non-human narratives and interrelations in the Anthropocene.

 
BIOGRAPHY


Born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sonia Mehra Chawla received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree in 2001, and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in 2004 from Delhi University’s College of Art, New Delhi, India. Chawla has an interdisciplinary practice as an artist, photographer and researcher. Her artistic practice explores notions of nature, ecology, sustainability and conservation through a multispecies lens. Chawla is the recipient of the 2004 National Award for Painting, Lalit Kala Akademi, National Academy of Art, India. She received the British Council and Charles Wallace India Trust (CWIT) fellowship in the field of visual arts in 2014, and the British Council and CWIT research grant in 2022. She is a fellow and awardee of the International Art+ Science programme instituted by Khoj International Artists’ Association and Wellcome Trust UK/DBT India Alliance. Chawla was awarded a long-term international fellowship and residency in the area of Social Sciences by Akademie Schloss Solitude, Germany from 2019 to 2022. She is a Fellow of the art, science and business programme of Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart.

Chawla has participated in curated projects at several International Museums and Institutions such as the ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai (formerly the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India), Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa Galerie Stuttgart, British Council, New Delhi, Tate Modern, London, Essl Museum of Contemporary Art, Austria, Yinchuan Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Yinchuan, China, Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews, UK, Science Gallery, Bengaluru, Indian Museum, Kolkata, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi, Today Art Museum, Beijing, Goethe-Institut Mumbai, Colombo, Pune and Delhi, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Künstlerhaus, Albertina Modern, Vienna, Khoj, New Delhi, National Institute of Design-NID Ahmedabad and Edinburgh Printmakers.

Selected solo exhibitions include, ‘Evolutionary Potential’, Kabinett Gallery, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart in collaboration with the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (2022), ‘The Rooted Sea’, curated by ASCUS Art & Science, Summerhall, Edinburgh in collaboration with Edinburgh Science Festival 2022, ‘Entanglements of Time & Tide’ at Castle Mills, Edinburgh Printmakers in collaboration with Marine Scotland, Creative Scotland and ASCUS Art & Science (2021), (UN)Containable Life, a comprehensive solo spanning a decade of artistic practice, 1x1 Art Gallery, Dubai (2020-21), ‘Critical Membrane’, Exhibit 320, New Delhi; curatorial adviser to the project: Ranjit Hoskote (2017), ‘Scapelands’, Exhibit 320, New Delhi in collaboration with British Council India and Charles Wallace India Trust (2015), ‘Scapelands’, Tarq, Mumbai, in collaboration with British Council India and CWIT (2015), ‘The Embryonic Plant & Otherworlds’, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hongkong (2013), ‘Metamorphosing Female’, Beck & Eggeling, Dusseldorf, Germany (2011).

Selected Group exhibitions and projects from 2016-2024 include:

‘Silent Archive’ curated by Emma Nicolson at the Inverlieth House, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh (2024), ‘Critical Zones: in search of a common ground’, a travelling exhibition in South Asia, co-produced by ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe and Goethe-Institut, Mumbai, conceptualized by Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel along with co-curators Daria Mille, Mira Hirtz and Bettina Korintenberg (2022- 24), ‘Alien Worlds’, Wardlaw Museum, University of St Andrews, UK, Beyond the Edge, Kolkata: Erasures and Resistances, a precursor to the Bengal Biennale, curated by Oindrilla Maity Surai (2024), ‘From Where We Stand’, part of British Council India’s landmark project ‘India/UK Together Season of Culture’ at the Design Gallery, National Institute of Design-NID Ahmedabad, British Council, New Delhi and Castle Mills, Edinburgh Printmakers UK (2022-23),‘The Beauty of Early Life’, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in collaboration with the Museum of Natural History, Karlshrue, curated by Norbert Lenz and Peter Weibel, co-curated by Eduard Harms Hannah Jung and Philipp Ziegler, ‘New Natures: A Terrible Beauty is Born’, curated by Ravi Agarwal, curator of Literature Ranjit Hoskote, at CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Mumbai (2022), ‘Driving the Human’ at Radialsystem, Berlin jointly presented by ZKM | Center for Art & Media Karlsruhe, acatech – National Academy of Science and Engineering, Forecast Berlin, and Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany (2021), ‘The Essl Collection at the Albertina Modern’, Albertina Modern, Vienna (2021), Edinburgh Art Festival 2021, Edinburgh International Science Festival 2021, ‘Fragile Kinships’, curated by Shaunak Mahbubani, Embassy of Switzerland, New Delhi in collaboration with India Art Fair (2019), ‘The Undivided Mind', Art+Science, Khoj International Artists Association, supported by Wellcome Trust UK/DBT India Alliance (2018), 'Eine Welt in der Stadt : zoologische und botanische Gärten = A world in the city : zoological and botanic gardens’, curated by Kaiwan Mehta, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, ifa Galerie, Stuttgart, Germany (2017), ‘Planes of Experience, Zones of Action', curated by Kaiwan Mehta, Gallery MMB, Goethe-Institut Mumbai (2017), ’On slippery grounds’, curated by Gigi Scaria, ET4U Contemporary Visual Art Projects, Denmark (2017), ‘For An Image Faster Than Light’, Yinchuan Biennale 2016, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Yinchuan, China, ‘Ein Baum Ist Ein Baum Ist Ein Baum’ curated by Prof. Dr. Herwig Guratzch and Kirsten Nordahl, Beck & Eggeling, Dusseldorf, Germany (2015-16)

Selected Group exhibitions and projects from 2007-2015 include:

‘The Wave Project’ curated by Klavs Weiss and Karen Havskov Jensen, ET4U Contemporary Visual Art Projects, Denmark, Scandinavia (2013), ‘What Rules?’ curated by Deeksha Nath , Nature Morte, Berlin, Germany (2012), ‘The Secret Life of Plants: Contemporary perspectives from India, China and Iran’, curated by Maya Kovskaya, Exhibit 320, New Delhi (2012), ‘India Awakens: Under the Banyan Tree’ curated by Alka Pande, ESSL Museum of Contemporary Art, Klosterneuberg, Austria (2011), ‘Global/Local: Time and Space in Contemporary Indian Art’, curated by Stefan Wimmer, Henn Galerie, Munich, and Beck and Eggeling, Dusseldorf (2010), ‘Lo Real Maravilloso: Marvelous Reality’ curated by Sunil Mehra, Gallery Espace and Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries, New Delhi (2009), ‘Re-Claim / Re-Cite / Re-Cycle’, curated by Bhavna Kakar, Galerie Bose Pacia (2009), ‘The Second Sex: India’, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hongkong (2008), ‘Identity and Masquerade: Staging the Self’, multimedia project, directed by Anne Braybone, Tate Modern, London (2007), ‘CC: Crossing Currents: Video Art & Cultural Identities, Indo-Dutch Video Art Exhibition’, curated by Yohan Pinajjpel, Lalit Kala Akademi in collaboration with Royal Netherlands Embassy and Mondriaan Foundation (2004).

Published critiques include essays and texts authored by Nancy Adajania, Ranjit Hoskote, Dr Alka Pande, Dr (Prof.) Herwig Guratzch, Kaiwan Mehta, Heather Davis, Deeksha Nath, Veeranganakumari Solanki and Maya Kovskaya.

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