Interview with Agraj Nagarkoti

Colette Copeland
November 2024

still photo from Agraj Nagarkoti’s
performance “The Transitional Being”

I met Agraj Nagarkoti in my performance art workshop at National Institute of Design. As a student in the Master of Photography and Design program at NID, Nagarkoti explores themes of gender identity, incorporating performance into her artistic practice. We spoke about her work while she was printing self-portrait cyanotypes in the historical process lab on campus.

CC: Your artist book The Movement Remains explores Waacking—a street dance style that originated in gay clubs in Los Angeles and its subsequent evolution into the queer community in Ahmedabad, India. When did waacking come to Ahmedabad? It’s interesting to me how a dance club scene might manifest in a dry state where alcohol is prohibited. What is your interest and experience in waacking and how has it shaped your identity as a performance artist and dancer?

AN: I was introduced to Waacking as a young child through the dance reality show Dance India Dance, where performer Shakti Mohan showcased the dance on national television. While I was not familiar with its queer history or for that matter, my own queerness, something about it influenced me as I’m sure it influenced many others in the country. The predecessor of the dance form – Punking died down in the ’80s and ’90s during the Aids epidemic and in the West, one of the reasons for its resurgence was the dance reality show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. I also credit reality dance shows in India which catapulted Waacking into the mainstream. Other factors were dance schools by practitioners of the dance form like Kumari Suraj who built a platform to teach it to aspiring individuals.

Ahmedabad is a city with many young dancers who built a strong underground dance scene, thus Waacking also emerged in these scenes. The dance form itself moved away from its club associations as it found a new home in the street style dance scenes and more recently in its own pockets of Waacking exclusive events.

Like many of my collaborators in this project, I also found a connection between the drama of Waacking and the expressiveness of Bollywood actresses like Madhuri Dixit, Rekha and Helen. The strong female characters these actresses portrayed, who embraced their femininity and sexuality became a relatable inspiration for the waackers in India. Hence for this particular project my focus was on a few of these dancers and what creates their performance style. Waacking is really important, since it created a space for me and other practitioners of queer dance forms in a predominantly masculine culture and scene.

Page 1 – Darshan, Page 2 – Liza, Page 3, – Saloni

CC: As you know, my Fulbright research centers around themes of borders and boundaries–physical, emotional, real, imagined, geographic, convergent and divergent. Much of your work in both photography and performance straddles the boundaries of perception and transformation—the idea of becoming. The word liminal keeps coming to mind–positioning oneself on a threshold. How does your work fit within these themes?

AN: Photography is something that happened to me. I was in front of the lens before I moved behind it and that is what inspired me to pursue the medium. Hence, most of my work currently is autobiographical, a way for me to make sense of my experience as well as a way for me to represent my experience in my own way. As a young artist, I’m going through multiple journeys which include crossing multiple thresholds but somehow these thresholds are quite difficult to cross physically and emotionally. This leaves me stuck in these liminal spaces where there is a certain comfort and discomfort, and just the paradox of this ‘In-betweenness’ has become an anchor for my work.

Along with the experiences and inspiration from my childhood, my culture and my dreams further guide what I want to create. But somehow, I’m slowly trying to break out of these boundaries as well. Many times there’s a certain expectation from queer and feminine art, and I’m trying to challenge these expectations slowly one step at a time.

CC: Let’s talk about your delicate and ethereal hand-made paper works which contain self-portraits that have been sewn with pieces of your hair. It is only when the works are back lit that we can see your image. What is hidden and what is revealed as it relates to identity and how we choose to present ourselves to the world are questions that the series poses. The handwork and process are integral in the conceptualization of this work. I see this work as performative, as your hands, touch and gestures come through the materialization. How does this series fit within your larger conceptual artistic practice?

AN: This work came into being with my explorations of paper making. I’ve been a maker since childhood and have been constantly exploring multiple mediums. These artworks reflect this exploration of mediums as well as my exploration of identity, where the hidden and the revealed present the tension between how we present and what remains unseen. The addition of hair came quite intuitively to me, where I started infusing my DNA within the artwork along with the images of my body. It also comes from the idea of submitting oneself to nature and becoming one with it. There is a certain romanticization I have of the ritualistic practice of making. The hand-sewn elements further emphasize the personal and intimate nature of the process. For me, the act of illuminating what is hidden is a performative act as well, which adds to the performance of the process of making this work. The materiality of the paper and the hidden self-portraits, align with my ongoing exploration and experience of transformation, concealment and revelation.

CC: Your final performance for our workshop included a powerful statement about transformation, courage and belonging. Please discuss your inspirations, collaboration and decisions for the performative action and animated projection onto the body.

AN: In my performance, I envisioned three stages of the self, the body we are born into, the transitional self and the final form. This liminal transitional phase is crucial yet deeply challenging and there’s a continuous battle between the 3 selves each trying to gain autonomy over the body. My friend and collaborator, Devansh, designed the wearable art piece I wore, drawing inspiration from the art of burlesque. One of the layers was crafted from disintegrated wire mesh and gauze, allowing the underlayer to subtly peek through. As I shed this snakeskin-like cocoon, the floral projections envelop the body. I wanted to highlight this constant interplay of what is real and what isn’t. Even as the performance ends, I wanted viewers to question if a body becomes real when it’s stripped away from all embellishments or if those embellishments add to the ‘realness’ of the being.

One of my major inspirations and practices is the art of drag. It helped me explore my identity when I had no other medium and it has really shaped into who I am today. Drag artist Sasha Velour was one of the first times I saw body projection combined with drag and I wanted to pay homage to her. The performance was a way for me to embrace that part of my life, the extravagance, the beauty and the spectacle of it, but also a way for me to reject those ideas as I step into another threshold of my life. This tension between embracing and rejecting past selves is at the heart of the performance, reflecting both personal growth and the complexities of transformation.