The Punch Magazine

About The Punch Magazine

Mumbai-based artist Riyas Komu is the co-founder of the Kochi Muziris Biennale in India and he is now the Director of Programmes for the Kochi Biennale Foundation, which develops projects focusing on Art Education in India. He is also the founder of URU art harbour, a cultural hub in Kochi, which has been envisioned as a vibrant and interactive space for visual arts, literature, music and philosophy. In our cover interview, Komu talks about the thematic texture of his latest show, the hopes, concerns and angst behind it, his efforts to build a community to promote arts, and his role as an “image-maker” and a “storyteller”.  Holy Shiver, Komu’s latest solo show, showcased at Vadhera Art Gallery in Delhi, documents his response to the attitude of the state. Through his oil portraits, woodcuts, videos, installations and archival prints, he reacts to the existing guidelines of the present government, writes Uma Prakash.  Without formal training as a dancer, Sridevi effortlessly danced and proved her mettle. It was in her dance that she showed the best of versatility and control as a performer, writes Pradipta Mukherjee, film critic and assistant professor at the Department of English, Vidyasagar College for Women.  New Delhi-based artist Vivan Sundaram, 75, aims to disrupt and disturb the viewers. His retrospective, “Step Inside And You Are No Longer A Stranger”, curated by Roobina Karode, which is on at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi till June 30, careens through different shifts in his art practice and his explorative approaches. In an interview, Sundaram talks about the retrospective, his creative process, the art of installation and mixing his artistic practice with history, memory and archives. The Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) creates an excitement and buzz that is difficult to match. In the historical setting of Diggi Palace in Jaipur, a dynamic synergy emerges, where the romance of the past encounters the exuberance of today, writes Uma Prakash.  The Runway Project blends cuisine with couture — both ultra chic, writes Shireen Quadri.  Rupi Kaur, Toronto-based Indian-Canadian poet, writer, illustrator and performer, talks about her romance with Spoken Word Poetry and the labours and joys of her two volumes of Spoken Word Poetry — Milk and Honey and The Sun and Her Flowers.  There are six poems by Keki N. Daruwalla, poet and novelist from Naishapur and Babylon: Poems (2005–2017), published by Speaking Tiger Books.  In February, Thiruvananthapuram hosted Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters, which has the potential to become one of the most sought-after literary fests, writes Shireen Quadri.  Unnikrishnan C., 26, an emerging artist from Kerala, says his work is “politically charged”.  We also feature an extract from a novel-in-progress by Sanaz Fotouhi, the director of the Asia Pacific Writers and Translators, as part of World Poetry/Prose Portfolio, curated by Sudeep Sen.  Onnupuram, a village in Tamil Nadu, is the hub of weavers, who have perfected the craft of making handwoven silk sarees, passing it on from one generation to another. Anusha Sundar, a student of photography at the University of the Arts London, captures snapshots from their lives.  In an interview with Shireen Quadri, New York-based guitarist and composer Shubh Saran, who is working on releasing five live music videos, says he likes the idea of bringing musicians from both India and the US together to collaborate. Shireen also writes notes from Udaipur World Music Festival.   We also feature a short story by writer-columnist Humra Quraishi, whose books include Kashmir: The Untold Story; Views: Yours and Mine; a short-story collection, More Bad Time Tales and Meer: A Novel.