Madison Reporter

UW–Madison MFA student Anamika Singh has been named this year's recipient of the Russell and Paula Panczenko MFA Prize. The award includes a solo exhibition at the Chazen Museum of Art, where Singh's exhibition "Corpus" is currently displayed at the Garfield Galleries until July 13.

Singh's exhibition examines the complex histories of the Indian subcontinent, particularly focusing on North India through the life of her granduncle, Sheetla Singh. Her work highlights ongoing issues, such as the 1992 demolition of the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, which she describes as pivotal: "The desecration of the Babri Mosque completely shifted the axis of not just Indian politics, but the greater subcontinent. This moment marked a rapid rise of the Hindu nationalist movement and the violence that unfolded afterward continues to deeply impact political and social relations."

The exhibition is the result of over three years of research, including field visits, interviews, and archival work in India. Singh explained her research process: "Corpus comes from over three years of artistic research, which included site visits and field research in India for several weeks at a time. During this time, I was also filming ‘Sheetla,’ an experimental film about my granduncle."

Visitors to the exhibition will encounter a variety of media, including installations using concrete and stainless steel, photography, and moving images. Singh hopes the exhibition prompts visitors to question notions like value, development, and the rapid transformation of landscapes. She states, "I would want for visitors to think critically about things like how value is assigned, be it to a body of knowledge or to an object."

Singh also envisions art as a medium capable of addressing broader issues: "I think art has the power to generate both new language, to address our experiences of the world, and address really uneasy things, like legacies of violence. But I think it also has the power to really challenge dominating systems of knowledge."

Reflecting on how the exhibition came together, Singh shared her thoughts on the experience: "I wanted to take the audience through a journey I had taken myself as I returned to the Awadh and experienced it amongst massive transformation and increasing communal strife and tensions."

Singh expresses a mixed sense of accomplishment and letting go, noting, "It’s hard to describe. It’s incredibly moving. There is both a sense of relief in bringing the work to fruition, but in some sense a sadness as you depart with the work."

The Panczenko Prize is supported by the Chazen Museum and the UW–Madison Art Department, funded by the Russell and Paula Panczenko Fund for Excellence in the Visual Arts.