PRIYANKA K.
GRAM ART RESIDENCY
Oct 2016
The Gram Art Project, funded by a Public Art Grant from the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) is held in Paradsingha, a village in Central India. This artist residency culminated in India's first land art festival in December 2016. I was selected to be part of a group of six artists to create land art pieces that dealt with contemporary farming issues in India.
After meeting with several prominent activists and active members of India's farmers' movements, I decided to focus on the need to address food safety and the dangers of GMO farming. Under the mentorship of veteran organic farming spokesperson Vasant Futane, I developed a six-panel wordless comic to speak to the younger generations of the village as a short graphic story to encourage the telling of stories around farming issues.
Called "Don't Eat The Seeds or a Tree Will Grow Out of Your Ears", my land art piece talks about dining-table myths and references the controversial Seralini studies on rats to raise questions about the use of GMO crops and pesticide use.