Ishwari Bhalerao and Leonie Rousham - UCL East Provost Art Prize 2020
Featured Media
Limited edition of digital pigment print reproduction of original banner available for sale.Kneed is a resource we have made for cultural workers, where we can learn how to make sustainably and collectively; resisting the pressures of neoliberalism and constant accumulation, in order to construct a new imaginary. Kneed explores and questions forms of ‘kneading’ (as process, labour, physicality and time) and ‘needing’ (as nourishment, sustenance or an expression of obligation).
Ishwari Bhalerao and Leonie Rousham work collaboratively. In 2020, Ishwari graduated with a BFA in Fine Art and Leonie graduated with a BA in Fine Art. They have been commissioned to produce a new artwork for UCL East.
Practice
Ishwari:
"I’m always questioning what it means to be an artist, and the way we work together is so important to the way I identify myself as an artist. While we are talking or performing together, something else is happening, and that’s the essence. That’s where the work happens: in that space which you can’t define or capitalise or make into a product – that’s where I see our work, that’s what’s interesting to me."
Leonie:
"Two years ago, without realising it, we developed a process for making – by doing a lot of thinking about how we interact with the things that then become the subject of our work. For example, with the sound pieces that we made in lockdown, they were the result of us trying to process so much change; the sound would echo and go through the windows, and it was all quite ephemeral."
Artwork for UCL East
Ishwari:
"We work in a site-specific way, we think about where something is and where it comes from in our work; that should influence what we’ll make for UCL East."
Leonie:
"We’ll also have to write a lot of text and do a lot of photos – that is our process even though some of it is abandoned later on."
Ishwari Bhalerao and Leonie Rousham
Website: www.kneed.co.uk