Poulomi Basu: Ecdysis artist talk and book launch

Ecdysis confronts the shame and silence surrounding women's blood politics across cultures and continents — alongside the mystical moments that mark a girl's coming of age. The book traces wounds of normalised violence against women across generations — the silence, the suppression, the bodies made sites of struggle — and the strength that emerges when that silence is broken. 

Ecdysis is a journey through realms real, spiritual and supernatural. Over a decade in the making, this is a multilayered work of docu-fiction that encompasses still photography, poetry, digital art, social practice, virtual and mixed reality, forensic found photography and a graphic novel. 

In an accompanying essay, Basu draws lines between her own family history, the women she has worked with, and the systems of patriarchy, caste, race and colonialism that has shape women’s lives.

Basu will be in conversation with Meneesha Kellay, Senior Curator and Lead Curator at V&A East. This event will also take the opportunity to screen Basu’s celebrated film 'Centralia: Ghost Dance’; a work of speculative fiction that transforms the story of a decades-long indigenous guerrilla war in Central India into an ambiguous narrative that unsettles our understanding of truth, media, violence, feminism, and environmentalism within a global context. The film was recently acquired by the V&A, alongside seventeen photographic works from the series 'Centralia'. 

 

Event format

18:00 - Guest arrivals

18.15 - Introductions

18:20 – 18:40 – Screening of Centralia: Ghost Dance

18:40 – 19:30 – Artist conversation, chaired by Meneesha Kellay

19:30 – 20:00 – Book signing

20:15 - Finish

Poulomi Basu is a neurodivergent artist and author known for her exploration of the interrelationship between systems of power and bodies through work that exists at the limits of visual art/ photography, film, creative technologies and activism. Basu’s work is defined by her transnational identity, working across interdisciplinary and experimental mediums. Whilst the centre of her works are often women of the Global South ( non euro centric ) like herself, her art and its histories are connected. Her practice focuses on intersectionality of ecological, racial, cultural, political and personal collisions influenced by influenced by socio eco feminism, magical realism and speculative futures. Basu is a BAFTA Breakthrough UK 2024 awardee, nominated in competition at Festival de Cannes 2024 and was awarded an ICP Museum Infinity Award in 2023. Her book ‘Centralia’ (2020) won the 2020 Rencontres d’Arles Discovery Award Jury Prize, and was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2021. In 2020, Basu was awarded the Royal Photographic Society Hood Medal for her transmedia work Blood Speaks, resulting in a major policy change. Basu is a National Geographic Explorer and a Magnum Foundation Social Justice Fellow. Her work is held in the international collections of Victoria & Albert Museum (UK), Kunstpalast Düsseldorf (Germany), Museum of Modern Art Library – Special Collections (USA), Harvard Art Museums (USA), Autograph ABP (UK), Martin Parr Foundation (UK), Olympic Museum (Switzerland).

Meneesha Kellay is a curator and cultural leader working across art, architecture, design and performance. She is currently Senior Curator and Lead Curator of a forthcoming major exhibition at the V&A East Museum. Meneesha is a Trustee of the British Museum. She is a 2024 Clore Leadership Fellow, recognised for her commitment to building platforms that amplify diverse voices and practices within and beyond institutions. Meneesha was co-curator of the award-winning British Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale. She has also played leading roles in cultural festivals including the London Design Festival and the London Festival of Architecture.

Event supported by the V&A Parasol Foundation Women in Photography Project