Sonam is Lecturer and an intermedia artist. She has received her Bachelors in Visual Arts (specialisation in sculpture) from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (2010- ’14), and Masters in Visual Arts (interdisciplinary) from Shiv Nadar University, NCR (2014- ’16). Her art practice broadly involves experiential, immersive and psychological experiments challenging the predominant constructs of Time and Memory. She has exhibited at various art spaces like Max Mueller Bhawan, Bikaner House, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Mumbai Art Room, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in India, and internationally with galleries/art institutes in Spain, Canada, Cyprus, United States and Myanmar. 

Keywords: Time, present, memory, monotony, the impact of capitalism on the representation of time

Her research, through her art practice and writings, involves experiences with various textures of time. The immersive temporality of a space, how it molds a memory and the ways through which we perceive each other and details of our surroundings, are embodied in her art works. She creates immersive video-aural installations, film, sound art, installations using found objects, artist’s books, also working with unconventional mediums like automated-calling system, vending machines, social media-based art and instruction-based art, among others. Her MFA thesis was around the philosophical questions surrounding the present, temporal experiences and the affects of language on human memory and time.

• 2019-’20 Grant– Five Million Incidents grant for creating art installations to be exhibited at Max Mueller Bhavan (Delhi and Kolkata) funded and conceived by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan in collaboration with Raqs Media Collective. Exhibited KAIROI, a time sensitive vending machine in the same Five Million Incidents 2019-2020, year-long series of events. Two machines were exhibited at MMB New Delhi and Kolkata for 5 months.
• 2019 Conceptualized and initiated the project, First Draft, a series of self-curated pop-up shows by group of artists exhibiting works-in-progress. The first show was at NIV Art Gallery, New Delhi, in 2018 and second at 6464, Vasantkunj, New Delhi, in 2019.
• 2019 Conceptualized and co-initiated the project, —out-of-line— , a virtual sound-art exhibition on the phone line, using automated calling system to call people such that they can listen to different artists’ sound pieces.
• The second show was exhibited as part of a group show- Real Time Tactics curated by Mila Samdub, in the context of The earth is still going around the sun : CISA 2019 Exhibitions, a project by Khoj International Artists’ Association, at IIC, New Delhi.
• 2019 Conceptualized and managing the Artreach Apprenticeship, Internship and Mentorship Program (AIM) with Artreach India, which facilitates children from Shelter homes in Delhi to work and learn under Artists or art organisations, in order to find better higher education and work opportunities and become self-dependent. www.artreachindia.org
• 2018 Month long Art residency at Kammari Residency- space for experimental thinking and arts, Treis Elies, Cyprus.
• 2018 8×4- The flowers will start flowering curated by Jasone Miranda-Bilbao in collaboration with Akansha Rastogi and Paribartan Mohanty at Galley OED, alongside Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India. The exhibition travelled to Sala Rekalde gallery, Bilbao, Spain.
• 2018 Random Variables curated by Ushmita Sahu at WNDX Festival of Moving Image, Poolside Gallery, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.
• 2018 apple in dream mode curated by John Xaviers at Mumbai Art Room, Mumbai, India. Part of MAR’s Curatorial lab.
• 2017-’18 Building Bridges: An International Art Project curated by Ushmita Sahu in collaboration with Emergent Art Space, San Francisco, culminating into an online show and four physical shows three in India and one in Myanmar.
• 2017-’18 Fellowship – Artreach India’s Teaching Fellowship. A year-long programme with the kids of Salaam Baalak Trust (NGO), awarded by Artreach India and Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi. It culminated in two exhibitions: at Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (Saket) and Ojas Art Gallery (1AQ), New Delhi, India.
• 2016 Imagined Futures Reconstructed Pasts curated by Meera Menezes, presented by Anant Art gallery at Bikaner House, New Delhi, Indi

• Expressive Arts: Digital Media
• Expressi​ve Arts: Exploration of Crafts