Artwork
Lumen / excerpt: "the ghosts she summons..."
Lumen, 2019-2021. Single channel projection, colour with 5.1 sound. Duration: 30 min. 8K and 4K digital format, mastered onto 4K. Sutapa Biswas © Sutapa Biswas. All Rights Reserved. DACS 2026. Produced in collaboration with Film and Video Umbrella, London, and Bristol Museums. Realised with generous support from the Art Fund UK Award 2019, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. With additional support from Autograph abp, London and Arts Council England.
Provenance
2025 - Sutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas: Kali & Lumen + Q&A. 'A special double-bill screening of Sutapa Biswas’s films Lumen (2021) and Kali (1983-85) followed by a Q&A with the artist, curator Jasmine Chohan and academic Griselda Pollock. Made nearly 40 years apart, both films demonstrate Biswas’s enduring interests in subjectivity, postcolonialism and feminism.’ Screened as part of the wider programme, Connecting Thin Black Lines, ICA, London.
2023 - Sutapa Biswas, in LUMEN Screening, Prince Charles Cinema, Soho, London. With a Q&A between Sutapa Biswas and Griselda Pollock. Sunday 19 November, 3:45PM. Hosted by HackelBury, London
2022-2023 - Sutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas: Lumen. Solo exhibition, Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, UK. 8 Oct 2022 – 7 Jan 2023
2022 - Sutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas Lumen. Solo installation, The New Art Gallery Walsall, UK. 22 July — 30 October 2022
2022 - Sutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas Lumen. Solo installation, Autograph, London. 4 March - 4 June 2022
2022 - Sutapa Biswas, in Lumen. Screening and US premier. Yale Center for British Art, Yale University. Tuesday, February 15, 2022, 8:30 am–Monday, February 21, 2022, 11:59 pm
2021-2022 - Sutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas: Lumen. Solo exhibition, Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge, UK. 16/10/2021 - 30/1/2022
Related Links
Sutapa Biswas in Conversation with David Olusoga, Chaired by Sarah Munro, Director, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Publication date: 19.2.2022·VideoBen Luke A brush with… Sutapa Biswas. Artist Interview / Podcast
The Art Newspaper. Published 22 November 2023·PodcastSutapa Biswas, in Sutapa Biswas: Kali & Lumen + Q & A with feminist art historian Griselda Pollock and curator, Jasmine Chohan
ICA, London website / Events and cinema screenings accompanying 'Connecting Thin Black Lines 1985-2025', curated by artist Lubaina HimidLauren Elkin, Profile: Recognition at Last After Decades of Decolonizing Art: Sutapa Biswas is the Subject of two major exhibitions in Britain that explore the country’s imperial legacy
New York Times. October 15, 2021·ArticleRachel Spence: Sutapa Biswas – a pioneering artist of race, exile and resistance. Arts Review, Sutapa Biswas solo exhibition Lumen: Sutapa Biswas, Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge, UK
Financial Times, January 11, 2022·ReviewLaura Cumming: Annicka Yi’s Turnine Hall; Sutapa Biswas: Lumen – review
The Observer. Sunday 17 September, 2021·ReviewSutapa Biswas, in Gill Park, 'Synaptic Visualizations: Reading ‘the Global’ in and through the Work of Sutapa Biswas'.
Art History, Ed. by Dorothy Price. Number 45, Vol 3, June 2022. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Oxford, UK, and Boston, USA. ISSN: 0141-6790. ISBN: 1467-8365 ·ArticleSkye Sherwin, Review: A new exhibition showcases an artist who has spent four decades shattering Asian stereotypes and highlighting women’s untold stories
The Guardian, Monday 11 October, 2021 ·ReviewLumen: Sutapa Biswas. Solo exhibition, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK. Installation views. © Sutapa Biswas. All rights reserved. DACS 2026. Photo: Rob Harris
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UKSutapa Biswas, in Imelda Barnard, Sutapa Biswas: entwining colonial history and personal memory. Online Essay, 16 November 2021
Art UK·ArticleSomething Curated, Interview: Pioneering British Indian Artist Sutapa Biswas on Her New Film Commission ‘Lumen’.
By Something Curated. An online Publication, 18 June 2021·InterviewJoanna Cresswell, Profile: Sutapa Biswas, The Indian born artist reflects on a life fearlessly redrawing the boundaries of feminism, colonialism and art
Elephant Magazine, 16 July 2021 ·ArticleKabir Jhala, Sutapa Biswas: ‘Our reckoning with empire has recently begun, but we’ve only scratched the surface’. Ahead of two major UK shows, the British Indian artist discusses her new work and her role in the Black British Arts movement.
The Art Newspaper, 24 June 2021·InterviewSutapa Biswas, in Film and Video Umbrella (FVU), 'Lumen' Sutapa Biswas.
Film and Video Umbrella (FVU), UK - OnlineAnna McNay, Sutapa Biswas – interview: ‘I felt questioning established systems of knowledge and power was as vital as breathing’.
Studio International, 24.6.2021·ArticleMillie Walton, Two Major Solo Shows Celebrate the Work of Sutapa Biswas
Trebuchet Magazine, 19.3.2021·ReviewAdrian Searle, Exhibitions not to be missed in 2021, The Guardian
The Guardian, 31.12.2020·Review