Aug 23 2026 to Aug 23 2026 11 a.m.

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

What makes an artwork meaningful? This talk journeys across cultures, time periods, and artistic mediums to discover how artworks speak in different visual languages, leaving audiences with simple tools to look at the world around with greater curiosity, confidence, and attention.

The aim of the session is to cultivate visual literacy; the ability to observe carefully, recognize that images are constructed rather than neutral, and appreciate how meaning emerges through the interplay of form, material, history, culture, and the viewer’s own experience. Across cave paintings, temple sculpture, photography, contemporary installations, and even the images encountered every day, the question thus transforms from, “What does this artwork mean?” to, “How is meaning being made here?”

Venue: Seminar Halls
Speakers

Pooja Kaul
Visual Artist, Educator, & Researcher
Pooja Kaul is a visual artist, educator, and researcher whose practice explores drawing, image-making, and art as a way of thinking and knowing. She holds degrees in Painting from the College of Art, University of Delhi, and Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. Her doctoral research at the Centre for Exact Humanities, IIIT Hyderabad, examined the ontology of painting through Indian philosophical traditions, particularly the Spanda philosophy of the Kashmiri Trika Śaiva system. Since 2012, she has taught at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, and is co-founder of the Jamun Artist Collective and founder of The Mamuli Studio, an independent art-research space in Naggar, Himachal Pradesh.

Anil Kumar H A
Art Historian, Translator, & Head, Department of Contemporary Arts Practice, Srishti Manipal Institution
Anil Kumar H. A. is a Bangalore-based art historian, translator, and writer who has taught art since the early 1990s. He translated Ways of Seeing (2012) into Kannada and wrote the screenplay for the nationally awarded best Kannada film Harivu (2015). He has written bilingual monographs on artists including Sankaragowda Bettadoor, M. S. Nanjundarao, and K. T. Shivaprasad, alongside writing on Kannada films and literature published in journals and periodicals including TOI, Indian Express, and Deccan Herald. He is Head and Professor, Department of Contemporary Arts Practice, Srishti Manipal Institution, MAHE, and a recipient of fellowships from CWIT, Pro-Helvetia, UNESCO-Aschberg, and the Kempegowda Award.