Meghana Bisineer
An interview with the artist and animator on her multifaceted practice, her deep engagement with process, the importance of collaboration and the body as a site of ‘multi-becoming’.
The films of Meghana Bisineer contain a sense of deep connection. They create a bond between inner and outer worlds, between past and present, reality and imagination. Intense and immersive interior spaces of drawn and painted animation are rendered upon the physical surfaces of the world around her. The everyday matter of the world - dust, water, lime, dirt, natural light - is repurposed as material for her artistic expression and investigation. Contrasting spaces are superimposed, overlayed, or woven together to form a new realm, where ritual, memory, place and the creative imagination merge.
I showed three of Meghana’s films last year in various Edge of Frame screenings. When I watch her work I think: ‘these are the films we need right now!’ They make me feel more in tune with something very real that nevertheless often seems quite distant; a sense of connection between a person, the space around them, their past and their imagination. They emit a kind of powerful energy which to me seems especially necessary at this time. They make me think about the strength of vulnerability, attention, creativity and love.
There is a good deal more to Meghana’s practice than animated films. Her recent work has encompassed installation, performance, cooking, tapestry, ceramic sculptures and costumes. Much of her work is deeply collaborative and she also co-runs the Upstream artists’ residency near Yosemite National Park.
Meghana is also Chair of the Animation Program, and Associate Professor of Animation and Graduate Fine Art at California College of the Arts, San Francisco. This interview took place last year, before the devastating news of California College of the Arts’ permanent closure was announced earlier this month.
Excerpt from Mudra (yearning to be loved) (2023) by Meghana Bisineer
EoF: Could you give a bit of biographical background about yourself?
MB: I was brought up in Bangalore, India. I’m the last of 4 sisters who were all very brilliant, but I was good at drawing and so I went to art school. I studied at the National Institute of Design (NID) in Ahmedabad where I got my BFA, and found out about Animation, which combined my love for stories with my love for drawing (a lot). I got a solid foundation in traditional drawn animation and my first films reimagined the Indian mythologies I grew up with.
In 2004, I was awarded the Inlaks Scholarship, which funded my MA in Animation at the Royal College of Art, London. I continued to live and work as a freelance animator, educator and artist in London till 2016, when I moved to California to work at California College of the Arts, San Francisco.
