Process Archive / Studio Bhoan
field notes & fragments from an itinerant studio
ongoing marginalia on image, memory, and place
These neurons were first discovered in monkeys in the 1990s and last year they were formally identified in humans. Ramachandran, the mirror therapist, was quick to reflect on their potential and he predicts that their discovery "will do for psychology what DNA did for biology".
What they appear to tell us is that humans are first and foremost mimics. We make ourselves up as we go along by improvising from what we see. This model also suggests the self is in dynamic interaction with otherness, both copying behaviour and projecting its emotions on to others, which is the basis for the vital human quality of empathy. (Ramachandran speculated in 2000 that autism was caused by deficient mirror neurons and medical research is now going in this direction.)
*via The Guardian : VS Ramachandran: The Marco Polo of neuroscience, 2011
Research, Mirror Neurons, Empathy
First comes the blood work—CA-125 in her case—then the imaging: MRI, followed by a sonogram. The gradients and radio-frequency coils map the body slice by slice, stacking them into a three-dimensional volume.
Chemotherapy begins but exacts its price; chemicals flood every tissue. Her bones feel hollowed, her cells as if they are burning from the inside.
Medical Imaging, Embodied Trauma, LiDAR
Video recordings in Urdu with English subtitles.
Urdu Poetry, Identity, Collective readings
Personal Memory, Photo Albums, Domestic History
“Billboards promising easy immigration to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK jut out through ample mustard fields.
Single-storey brick homes double up as canvasses for hand-painted mural advertisements promising quick visas. And in the town of Bathinda, hundreds of agents jostle for space on a single narrow street, pledging to speed up the youth's runaway dreams.”
Images from Punjab, a few years prior to Daksh leaving for Canada.
Migration, Punjab, Global Mobility
As a result of these riots, hundreds of Sikhs had to leave their homes and take refuge in relief camps or in other safer places. Many Sikh families lost their male members and thus suffered great emotional and heavy financial loss. The Home Minister made a statement on the floor of the Rajya Sabha that the number of Sikhs killed in Delhi during November 1984 riots was 2146; 586 persons were said to have been killed in other parts of the country during that period.”
*via Govt Of India - Justice Nanavati Comission Of Inquiry (1984 Anti-Sikh Riots), submitted in 1986
Migration, Political Violence, Historical Record
Language, Middle-Class India, Maternal Memory
Provisional, Jugaad, Boundries
studiobhoan@gmail.com
Bhoan earned his MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art (2023). Recent presentations include One Tongue Over the Other, lake.space, London (2024); By the Means at Hand, with Vlatka Horvat, Croatian Pavilion, 60th La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2024); A Small Thing but My Own, The Studio @ 620, Florida (2022); Lambing Season, Worldling Gallery, London (2022); Poplar Union Digital Arts Festival, London (2020); and Pop-Up Archive, ICP MANA, New York (2017).
His recognitions include the TAF Emerging Artist Award (2025), a residency at Landschaftspark Rietzer Berg (2023), and an En Foco Photography Fellowship (2020).
BIPOC mentorship program - link