Decade Of Decembers
presented at Jaipur Art Week '26
A SITE SPECIFIC DANCE FILM STUDY
In collaboration with Window Works
On aging, climate change and body through the landscape of Jaipur over a decade
In the beginning of the year 2023, I woke up one morning with aching joints. 'This is new,' I said to myself. My body was shifting and I could only be a witness to what it was becoming.
Decade of Decembers is a project to stand witness to our bodies & our ideas of our bodies that we carry so deeply with ourselves. Three women get together every December to document themselves (their idea of self) through photographs, film & sound. Each woman is shot at her chosen location, which remains the same each year. Since the women being documented are all dancers & movers, the project invites reflection on their ageing bodies, transitions in movement abilities and the changes they embed within their skin. The project documents not just the physical features but their emotional state at the end of every year too.
Like a little time capsule, the images & soundscapes create a world of intimate memories and honest intangible keepsakes for every woman to look back at.
Our bodies are our safehouse. This is the only one true home we know & inhabit. And these bodies carry our story. Through wrinkled skin, blemish, scars, cracked heel, pain, care & nourishment, we speak through our bodies. And what is it that we wish we say? What is the story we wish to write? Am I open to the changes in my hair colour with age? Am I okay with tired, aching bodies? Am I okay with losing my range of motions? The lost cartwheels?
But while the project on one hand looks at body as the storyteller; the space is which the bodies are shot also becomes a canvas for speaking about the changing landscape of the city and our relationship with the spaces we inhabit.
An intimate yet open archive of what it is to age - as body, as a soul, as a space.
3 women bodies slip in and out of time creating a time capsule of lived, felt, shaped experiences;
tangible & intangible
Collaborators for the project :
Pooja Udhwani as creative associate & Nishant Ghiya as photographer
"I have learnt that over years, over many many injuries. First & foremost is rest."
Shreeya K Agarwal
Her practice is informed by her lived experiences as an artist, a woman & a mother. Founder of Maah, her interest lies in creating site-specific works and immersive art experiences rooted in movement, where the lines between the viewer and the performer are blurred.
Navya Sah
She works in the realms of filmmaking, dance, sound and writing under her comapny Window Works. Her work studies emotional responses by creating conflicting art. She enjoys simplicity, slowness and detailed observation-making.
Kamakshi Saxena
A dance practitioner with more than 20 years of dance, performance and teaching experience. An Associate Creative Director at Maah space, she runs creative projects, residency programs and art education projects.