Event
A Stillness Class: The Consciousness of Doing
Wednesday 12 January 2022
Online workshop facilitated by Dr. Ranjana Thapalyal
A talk followed by a workshop in which participants will put theory into practice through a creative exercise in shifting perspectives.
This session invites participants to enter new territories of inter-disciplinary, inter-cultural thinking, in order to answer the question, ‘can external revolution be effective while we remain internally unchanged?’
Core ideas will be introduced from four geographically and temporally distinct world views spanning millennia: Advaitya Vedanta, Yoruba Cosmology, Bhaskar’s metaRealism (which extends but deviates from Critical Realism), and J.Krishnamurti’s iconoclastic “first and last revolution”.* These philosophies are vast, complex, and distinct. They share however, an expectation of humanity that we can readily grasp: that we have agency and that our actions, when moderated by self-knowledge, can enable more equitable societies and a sensible relationship with nature.
*Origins: Advaitya Vedanta - South Asia c. 700 BCE; Yoruba philosophy -West Africa c. 400 BCE; Critical Realism/metaRealism- U.K. 1975/ 2000; J.Krishnamurti- India 1929.
This workshop forms part of The Ignorant Art School Sit-in Curriculum #2.
Participant information
Everyone is welcome to attend. You do not need to have specialised knowledge to join the class, but you will leave with inspiration and guidance on how to find out more.
The workshop will be held on Zoom with discussion in breakout rooms. Participants will receive an online meeting link upon sign-up and further information about the event.
Facilitator biography
Dr. Ranjana Thapalyal is an Indian born inter-disciplinary artist and academic based in Scotland. Her practice spans ceramics, painting, and ephemeral mixed media. Research areas include materiality in art, cultural and social identity, and the metaphysical self in relation to all of these. Of particular interest are concepts of self in South Asian and West African traditions, feminist readings of ancient philosophies of the global South, cultural politics, and the development of decolonising, inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural strategies for art pedagogy and social and environmental harmony. In her book, Education as Mutual Translation, a Yoruba and Ancient Indian Interface for Pedagogy in the Creative Arts (Brill 2018), Thapalyal proposes an adaptive, student led pedagogy premised on critical aspects of Yoruba and Vedantic thought, sensitive to history and student contexts. Recent writing can be found in Art Monthly, MAP, and Panel publications.
Funding support
The Ignorant Art School Sit-in #2 at Cooper Gallery, DJCAD is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland and the Goethe-Institut Glasgow.
Image credit
- Ranjana Thapalyal, 2021