No Kings (and Chronicles)

Priyanka D’Souza x Nivedita Madigubba

Installation view of No Kings (and Chronicles) at Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts, Panjim, India

No Kings (and Chronicles) is a multi-part installation that thinks about mark-making and erasure, resistance, and persistence, particularly in Priyanka and Nivedita’s current political contexts of working between India and the US. The phrase, ‘No Kings’, that has been used to protest authoritarian policies in the US has been considered alongside the chapter on Mughal history titled, ‘Kings and Chronicles,’ dropped from the NCERT 12th std syllabus.

These works screen-print the pages from the dropped NCERT chapter on Mughal history in English, Hindi, and Urdu, onto discarded book covers from the University of California, Berkeley, library. In erasing the Mughal emperors in the visuals by gold gilding them, this set of works examine how print’s traditional function is now entangled with the contemporary impulse to rewrite history in printed school textbooks.

(Set of 9 unique prints) Gilt 23k gold and screen-print on discarded books from the UC Berkeley library.

No Kings (and Chronicles) – III , (Vitrine Installation) Screen-print and linocut on discarded book paper from the UC Berkeley library, 84 in x 18 in each (set of 6)

No Kings (and Chronicles) – I, (Floor installation) Chalk and tacky mat on chalkboard vinyl (and footprints), 3.75ft x 7ft

Variable editions, lino-block prints on both sides of gampi paper, drawing with India Ink, letter stamping and embossing on cotton paper