SAVVY Kwata Kerala

The podcast will focus on redefining/reconceptualizing cultural work and labour outside neoliberal capitalist frameworks in the context of Kerala. It aims to explore themes such as cultural work and invisible labour, dis-visibilisation of labour of marginalised communities, women in cultural work in the context of Kerala, the need for a radical pedagogical intervention to enable cultural resistance and more. 

SAVVY KWATA KERALA is an embodied research on the cultural economy of Kerala. In this podcast moderated by cultural worker Arshootti, we hear educators Asha Achy Joseph and Kavitha Balakrishnan comment on invisiblised labour in the Indian state of Kerala.  

ARSHOOTTI is a cultural worker and researcher from Kerala, currently based in Scotland. With an academic background in media and communication, social work with specialisation in community development, and gender studies, she explores the intersection of these disciplines. Her current research explores the topic of women in armed resistance as a site of decolonial feminist theory and praxis. As a cultural worker, she is also engaged in decolonial feminist film curatorial practices as a tool for generating counter-hegemonic narratives. 

DR. ASHA ACHY JOSEPH is the Dean of the School of Communication at Sacred Heart College, Kochi, and a practice-based researcher and filmmaker. In the last twenty-five years, she has done research projects at institutions including UGC, wrote articles, scripted, translated and subtitled films, translated and edited books related to Cinema along with making fiction as well as nonfiction film and TV content. She is one of the founding members of Women in Cinema Collective.

KAVITHA BALAKRISHNAN is an artist, bi-lingual author (in English & Malayalam), curator and art educator based in Kerala, South of India. She has an MFA in Art History from MS University Baroda (1998). Her PhD was a cultural study of the Illustrated print pictures in 20th century India, specifically the periodicals in Malayalam language. Since 2000, Kavitha has engaged with the changing scenario of practising, writing and educating art and art-history in India, contributing critical reviews in widely published major Indian journals of art like The Marg, Art & Deal, TAKE ON ART and also in the Journal of Illustration Research, Intellect Publication, London. Kavitha finds her artistic language at the generic crossroads of the disciplines of Art, Art History and Poetry. Collaborating with Charlie and Hilary Holt, she has been exhibiting art works at various locations like Merzbarn Cumbria UK, Manchester Metropolitan University, Loafers art Cafe in Fort Kochi. In collaboration with artist Riyas Komu, she has curated Re-Curating Print Pictures at the Kashi Art Cafe as part of India's first Biennale. She has also done experimental displays at various Poetry Festivals in Kerala. For the last nineteen years, she has been teaching Art History at Govt. College of Fine Arts, Thrissur, Kerala.