Out of Print Workshop at MAP | Cats

Out of Print Workshops

In collaboration with the Museum of Art & Photography

On the last weekend in March, a group of writers gathered at the Museum of Art and Photography as part of the Write from Art, Write from Story collaboration between Out of Print magazine and the Museum.

The writing workshop was conducted by Dr Indira Chandrasekhar, the founder of Out of Print. In these workshops conducted for MAP, Indira uses the visual from the exhibition around which the workshop centres as the inspiration for the writing that participants work on. 

This workshop focussed on the exhibition 'The Many Lives of the Cat' on its closing weekend. It was an exhibition that explored how the feline has been represented in art across the ages through different regions of the subcontinent. To fully engage with the visual the writers were treated to a walk-through of the exhibition conducted by one of the docents. Many small discussions, triggered by the docent’s own views and ways of exploring the exhibition were an interesting consequence. At the end of the walk-through, Indira suggested that the writers allow their own imaginations to inspire them, and not necessarily be guided by what they had heard. It turned out, there was really no need for her to have stated that – the range of ideas and narratives that emerged was fascinating and diverse. 

The participants spanned many ages – our youngest was about nine – and many different levels of engagement with writing and art. They responded to different works in the exhibition: from a detailed miniature of centuries past to vibrant pinks in contemporary depiction; from the definitive and pictorial in Patua art to the dark intensities in a charcoal drawing; from a cat centred in the green of tropical foliage to a cat positioned off-centre drawing viewers focus to the green of a capsicum on a kitchen table; from a multi-headed Gond representation to the ambiguous message in a large embroidered panel. The discussions before the writers started to put their thoughts down about what they had seen in the paintings was truly interesting, examining the psychology of the cat, of the human, and showing how the visual can trigger imagination and create story.

In most Out of Print writing engagements, writers are encouraged to finish the pieces they developed during the workshop and send them in to the magazine editors. Select pieces are then published. Below, we list five out of the many fine works developed at the workshop. 

JAYASHRI JAYARAMAN | THE CAT THAT KNEW TOO MUCH

SANCHARY GHOSH | NAVRATRI – THE 11TH MORNING

NIVEDITHA K PRASAD | DESERT CAT AND THE OASIS

SHUBHA SHASTRY | WHERE WE LEARNED TO BELONG

ASHWIN DEV BHATT | LOSS OF PHYSICS