Conversations, Chai & Creative Breakthrough: An Artist Residency Diary from Art Ichol

 Residency Highlights

🌍 The Journey: Singapore → Delhi → Khajuraho → Panna National Park → Art Ichol

📍 Location: Heritage village of Ichol, Madhya Pradesh

💡 Growth: Cross-medium experiments, folk art influences, curatorial dialogues

Art Ichol is one of India’s most respected artist residencies, offering a sanctuary for creatives to immerse themselves in their practice while engaging with the layered cultural and historical context of the region. Nestled in the quiet village of Ichol in Madhya Pradesh, the residency sits within a serene landscape of lush greenery, heritage architecture, and an atmosphere that harmoniously fuses tradition with contemporary sensibilities. This peaceful environment, free from urban noise, offered me the clarity and spaciousness I needed to expand my ongoing body of work—shifting my lens to consider its social relevance from a renewed cultural and historical vantage.

The morning mist curled across Art Ichol’s sprawling lawns, dotted with site-specific installations, as I settled into the studio surrounded by the quiet hum of making. At Art Ichol, time bends differently—slow, fluid—inviting artists to unearth subtleties within their work and respond to the rhythms of the natural world and its storied past.

The Road to Art Ichol: An Adventure Itself

The journey to Ichol unfolded like a prelude—Singapore to Delhi, onward to Khajuraho, then a drive through the dense forests of Panna National Park. Sightings of deer, wild peacocks, and shafts of golden light filtering through teak trees set the tone: something transformative lay ahead. By afternoon, I arrived at Art Ichol, greeted warmly by staff and resident artists.

American artist Blayz Buseth, familiar with the space, graciously showed me around. His gentle presence and generous introductions created a sense of instant belonging—a feeling that stayed with me throughout.

My room for 2 weeks of residency

The Setting and Ambika Beri’s Vision

Art Ichol’s physical space is charged with presence. A restored heritage property nestled within a village, it is both a studio and a site of memory. It forms part of the larger Ichol Art Village, a visionary initiative by philanthropist Ambika Beri, whose commitment to cultural preservation and contemporary art practice makes this place unique. Her dream—to create a space where artists, artisans, and thinkers converge—has resulted in a vibrant, living studio that breathes both continuity and change.

Why Artist Residency at Art Ichol? A Sanctuary for Creative Exploration

How does isolation unlock creativity? For me, the answers emerged in the space between exposures, in the rhythm of embroidery stitches, in the layering of image and absence. Art Ichol offers more than facilities; it offers a spirit. It is a rare place where nature, architecture, and memory hold space for your process. It invites slowness, even silence—yet it's also a site of potential collaboration and resonance.

The studio became my sanctuary—not for prolific output, but for deep reflection. While I created fewer finished pieces than expected, I devoted myself to reading, research, and refining the philosophical underpinnings of my work. The residency’s unhurried rhythm allowed me to sit with questions rather than rush to answers.

My cyanotype experiments became a meditation on process itself. The medium’s layered nature—chemically reactive, time-sensitive, inherently unpredictable—felt like a metaphor for the residency’s alchemy. Just as sunlight slowly revealed latent images on my treated paper, my time at Art Ichol exposed new layers in my practice: where heritage, nature, and deliberate experimentation could intersect.

Clay, Canvas, and Conversations: Multidisciplinary Inspirations

What stayed with me most were the conversations. Vanita Gupta’s fluid shift from painting to monumental sculpture; Blayz’s ceramic narratives around a fictional character named Tom—each artist was expanding their practice beyond the expected. Rohit Varekar brought rural narratives alive through visual storytelling, while Bhikari Pradhan’s politically charged work opened a dialogue on social erasure and marginalisation.

Their varied mediums—ceramics, sculpture, traditional art forms, installation—didn’t just sit beside mine; they nudged it. They asked new questions of my materials, of my metaphors. I began rethinking how repetition, thread, and layering could communicate absence and control more viscerally.

Guidance from Shaurya Kumar: Humility and Insight

One of the most generative conversations I had was with Shaurya Kumar, a deeply thoughtful artist and educator working across print, digital, and installation. His humility was disarming. Over several cups of chai, we spoke about rigor, doubt, and the slippery terrain of the unfinished. He reminded me over a chai:

“An artist’s job isn’t to impress—it’s to uncover.”

That one sentence reframed everything. It echoed my own commitment to work that dwells in ambiguity, invites slowness, and resists spectacle. Process, not product. Meaning, not noise.

Curatorial Glimpses: Shirish Shahane’s Encouragement

Though brief, my interaction with curator Shirish Shahane left a mark. His genuine curiosity and encouragement—particularly toward work still in process—was grounding. His willingness to stay connected felt like quiet validation, especially in a phase when much remained unresolved.

The Artist Talk: Articulating the Unfinished

Presenting my evolving series to an audience of artists and local staff was unexpectedly illuminating. The questions—“Why cyanotype?” “Why red thread?” “What’s missing from this work?”—helped clarify my intent. Speaking about liminality, erasure, and cultural memory out loud was its own form of reflection. I left that session with sharper language—and deeper questions.

Conclusion: A Residency of Growth and Discovery

Art Ichol gave me more than time and space. It gave me a deeper attunement to the materiality of silence, the architecture of absence, and the collaborative potential of pause. Through generous conversations, unexpected connections, and the freedom to make (and unmake), I returned with new ideas and a reinforced sense of purpose.

If you’re an artist seeking a place to listen—truly listen—to your work, this residency offers fertile ground. Just be warned: you may leave with more questions than answers. And that’s exactly the point.

Your Turn

Have you done a residency that transformed your way of thinking? What did you shed—or gain—in the process? I’d love to hear your reflections in the comments. You can also follow along on Instagram @madhveedeb for behind-the-scenes glimpses from Ichol.