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.
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.
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland 1010
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
Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland 1010
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.
→ Additional Events
Additional events with Shubigi Rao will be taking place while she is in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in May, organised in partnership with SATELLITES, a Tāmaki Makaurau-based arts organisation connecting the past, present and future of Aotearoa Asian art.
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.