Shubigi Rao’s exhibition, Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book, takes the form of a book, film and paper maze, to explore the precarity and persistence of endangered languages, the futures of knowledge, public and alternative libraries, and the cosmopolitanism of regional print communities that have blossomed and waned in historic centres of print.
Commissioned for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, and curated by Ute Meta Bauer, Pulp III marks the midpoint of Shubigi Rao’s evocative 10-year project, Pulp, which explores the history of book destruction and those who persist in its margins to protect the futures of knowledge.
Set in the historic cities of print of Venice and Singapore, her film, Talking Leaves, explores the tales of those at the frontlines of saving books and libraries, by ways of personal confidences and poetic reflections, documentary and mytho-poetic languages. Her book, Pulp III: An Intimate Inventory of the Banished Book, chronicles her long-term artistic research process and conceptual reframing of the book and the library. The artist's book is available to purchase, although exclusively at the exhibition.
Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book is a lyrical manuscript that charts the breadth of human cultural endeavour through shared stories of humanity and communities of print.
Te Tuhi in association with Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, Auckland Writers Festival and SATELLITES are hosting several events alongside the Aotearoa presentation of Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book:
→ Book-Exchange and Opening event at Pulp III: A Short Biography of the Banished Book
Saturday 20 April 2024, 10.30am-11.30am
Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, 40 Saint Paul Street, Auckland CBD
Everyone welcome
Te Tuhi in association with Te Wai Ngutu Kākā are presenting a special book exchange, coinciding with the exhibition's free opening event, happening from 10.30am to 11.30am on Saturday 20 April 2024 at Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery.
For more information about the book exchange and opening event, click here.
→ Auckland Writers Festival Talk - Pulp Friction: The Rise of Book Bans, a panel discussion
Sunday 19 May 2024, 11.30am-12.30pm
Hunua Room, Aotea Centre, 50 Mayoral Drive, Auckland CBD
Ticket required
Programmed as part of the Auckland Writers Festival 2024, Shubigi Rao will be joining a panel discussion covering the topic of the global rise of book bans. Participants in the discussion include authors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Lauren Groff, and journalist, Adam Dudding.
For more information about the panel discussion, click here.
→ Hallucinating Time: artist Shubigi Rao and curator Vera Mey in conversation
Saturday 25 May 2024, 11am-12pm
Te Wai Ngutu Kākā Gallery, 40 Saint Paul Street, Auckland CBD
Everyone welcome
Shubigi Rao will be in conversation with Vera Mey, International Programme Director at Te Tuhi. Against the background of the exhibition, they will discuss Rao's artistic practice as closely linked to writing fiction, documenting history and reading, a process which the artist has likened to "hallucinating time".
For more information about the event, click here.
Following the conversation with Vera Mey, Shubigi Rao will hold a free workshop – Who, how, why: Shubigi Rao on filmmaking – to discuss her work as a solo female filmmaker. The workshop, which will run from 1pm-3pm, is presented by SATELLITES and is limited to 15 practitioners. If you're interested in joining, please RSVP through SATELLITES' website here.
About Shubigi Rao
Artist and writer Shubigi Rao makes layered installations of books, etchings, drawings, pseudo-scientific machines, metaphysical puzzles, video, ideological board games, garbage, and archives, and has been exhibited and collected in Singapore and internationally. Her interests include archaeology, neuroscience, libraries, archival systems, histories and lies, literature and violence, ecologies and natural history.
Since 2014 she has been visiting public and private collections, libraries and archives globally for Pulp: A Short Biography of the Banished Book, a decade-long film, book and visual art project about the history of book destruction. As an artist in residence at CCA, Gillman Barracks, Singapore, she released her first book from the project in January 2016. It was shortlisted for the biennial Singapore Literature Prize 2018 (non-fiction).
The second book from the series won the Singapore Literature Prize (nonfiction) in 2020. The first instalment of the project Written in the Margins, won the Juror's Choice Award at the APB Signature Art Prize 2018.