Transformations through Radical Art Practice
Bhavani Esapathi, hosted by Anna Dumitriu

Summary

Bhavani Esapathi describes her practice as that of a hesitant artist, using digital technologies and narrative frameworks to make invisible conditions and systemic injustices visible. In 'Inconclusive Diagnosis', a life-size sculpture of her scarred torso invites viewers to ask the questions polite society suppresses about chronic illness. A later NHS-funded work examines South Asian stigma around Crohn's disease and colitis by revealing external and internal realities of living with a stoma. Collaborating with King's College London, she produces an audiovisual piece that contrasts the care scientists give cells with the disconnect felt in patient-doctor consultations. With Oxfam, she develops a digital narrative tool to help charities understand what communities need rather than assume it. Her research into microplastics, inspired by watching her cats refuse raw food from plastic-contaminated bowls, leads her to COP 27, where she argues that global health data ignores the disproportionate burden of plastic pollution on the Global South. Now a fellow at the University of Surrey, she continues to explore climate displacement, questioning whether institutional categories for climate refugees illuminate or erase colonial responsibility. Throughout, she insists that art's value lies not in spectacle but in creating new languages through which marginalised experiences can be heard.

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