The Science Museum celebrated the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence with a special ‘Lates’ event on Wednesday 31st August 2022 in London. The India ‘Lates’ reception was attended by Acting Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Mr Sujit Ghosh; Ms Yamuna, Counsellor for Defence, Science and Space Technology, and Amish Tripathi, Culture Minister and Director of the Nehru Centre. Among the contributors to SMG India ‘Lates’ were:
- Future Fantastic: bringing together AI, interactive art and live performance, with a focus on global challenges, climate change and women’s leadership in CreaTech.
- Antibodies: rethinking the body and the border, in its immediate ecology and the extended realms of myth, magic and healing in the context of Live Art.
- Elsewhere in India – Experiments in Transmedia Storytelling: draw from museum archives and collections to develop an interactive game/digital experience – broadly focussed on the notion of digital restitution of museum objects
The Science Museum has also commissioned a number of works and installations by Indian artists including Chila Kumari Burman MBE, who ran a participatory art workshop in the Gallery Cafe; Monish Siripurapu, who demonstrated CoolAnt prototypes in The Information Age gallery and Amish Tripathi, who took part in an in-conversation event with Lucy Holland, a British author working in a similar genre, followed by book signing in Wonderlab Shop.
Chila Kumari Burman MBE
“Since the mid-1980s I have been exploring the experiences and aesthetics of Asian femininity in paintings and installations, photography and printmaking, video and film. In my more recent works, this theme has taken on a new power and vibrancy. I am currently making a new body of work to draw all of these together and to develop the ideas and images contained in the new cultural contexts of national and international politics in the twenty-first century.
Challenging stereotypical assumptions of Asian women, my work is informed by popular culture, Bollywood, fashion, found objects, the politics of femininity the celebration of femininity; self-portraiture exploring the production of my own sexuality and dynamism; the relationship between popular culture and high art; gender and identity politics.”
For the Science Museum’s 2017 Illuminating India season, Chila was commissioned to produce an artwork inspired by our collection. She made over 20 colourful new works in a variety of media that were displayed outside the two Illuminating India exhibitions, and also decorated a tuk-tuk that was shown in the main foyer. Chila has enjoyed significant success since then, having recently worked with Tate, and was awarded an MBE in 2022.
In Lates, Chila ran a participatory art workshop in the Gallery Cafe.
Monish Siripurapu
Founder and principal architect of ANT Studio, New Delhi, founded in 2010. He graduated from the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, in 2009 and received the prestigious JN Tata scholarship in 2015 for his postgraduate Diploma in Robotic Fabrication from the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC), Spain. He has won many national and international architectural and design competitions. His works have been published in the World Economic Forum, “Architectural Digest,” “ArchDaily” etc. The core intent of his work is to bridge between the spheres of Art, Nature and Technology, thus the name ANT Studio. Monish’s eco-friendly air-cooling product, called the CoolAnt, has received a lot of recognition.
In Lates, Monish presented two sessions, demonstrations of CoolAnt prototypes in Information Age at 18.45 and a Q&A in the Lecture Theatre at 21.00
Amish Tripathi
As well as being Minister for Culture in the Indian High Commission, Amish is a popular author, writing fiction and non-fiction. In Lates, it’s as a writer of historical/mythological fiction, that Amish took part in an in-conversation event with Lucy Holland, a British author working in a similar genre, followed by book signing in Wonderlab Shop.
The Science Museum ‘India Lates’ programme includes a host of other activities including welcoming ISRO Engineer, Ms Moumita Dutta who participated in an interview about the Indian space sector and her own experience, a Silent Disco exploring space; Transcendence dance performance; Objects and Stories from India; Tea and the Science of Tradition, alongside exhibitions and participatory experiments.
About Science Museum Lates
Science Museum Lates are adults-only, after-hours theme nights that take place in the museum on the last Wednesday of every month.
About the Science Museum Group
The Science Museum Group is the world’s leading group of science museums, welcoming over five million visitors each year to five sites: the Science Museum in London; the National Railway Museum in York; the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester; the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford; and Locomotion in Shildon.
We share the stories of innovations and people that shaped our world and are transforming the future, constantly reinterpreting our astonishingly diverse collection of 7.3 million items spanning science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. Standout objects include the record-breaking locomotive Flying Scotsman, Richard Arkwright’s textile machinery, Alan Turing’s Pilot ACE computer and the earliest surviving recording of British television. Our mission is to inspire futures – igniting curiosity among people of all ages and backgrounds. Each year, our museums attract more than 600,000 visits by education groups, while our touring exhibition programme brings our creativity and scholarship to audiences across the globe.
More information can be found at www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk.