Book on Eventbrite. Bhavani Esapathi Talk 16th April 2025

Biography

Bhavani Esapathi’s transdisciplinary practice uses digital storytelling, speculative fiction and participatory media to explore issues including invisible disability rights, immigration, climate, and health. She was the 2022 President of the Science and the Arts Section of the British Science Association, has presented her work at COP27 in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, and won the WIRED Japan Creative Hack Award in 2016.

Her work has been exhibited widely, including Athens Digital Art Festival, Science Gallery London, the V & A, and Phoenix Art Space Leicester.

Recent collaborations include Wohl Cellular Imaging Lab at Kings College London, and she was the recipient of Collective Imagination Fund exploring the notions of climate refugees. She is currently a Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Surrey.

Abstract

Bhavani Esapathi will discuss her artistic practice which responds to current political and social landscapes focussing on the impacts of climate change and pollution on health, invisible disabilities and chronic illness, and the concept of climate refugees. This often means contending with both institutional and personal pressures that comes with being a disabled, migrant woman of colour.

From beginning to make art when invisible disability was not a common term to delving into the notion of climate refugees today, a term brimming with contentions. Her talk will address questions including what role can art play in helping us better understand the evolving world around us? How can a radical art practice transform attitudes in a positive way? And what is the process behind selecting subjects for art making? Bhavani Esapathi will go through a decade’s worth of creative pursuits and unpick what worked and what didn’t and the role of technology in art making today.