“Vernacular Graphic Design from the Dominican Republic and India”, a dialogue between Aradhana Seth and Maurice Sánchez
In December 2021, we organised the online dialogue “Vernacular Graphic Design from the Dominican Republic and India” between the Indian visual artist Aradhana Seth and the Dominican visual artist Maurice Sánchez. This was the first of a series of dialogues, between creatives from both countries, our mission is working on. The conversation revolved around a topic all of us experience, although not much attention is given to it: the visual language of the everyday locale. Graphic designers and other artists certainly are more acquainted with it, but beyond graffiti, this visual language continues to be vastly unexplored. Both artists have been carrying forward their individual documentation on the topic and we considered it a fitted pairing to bring them together for this conversation.
Aradhana Seth and Maurice Sánchez presented a selection of images from their archives, paired by themes such as food, ideal beauty, nation building and religion, among others. The similarities and the differences between the vernacular graphic design practices documented gave them the opportunity to reflect on the social, economic and cultural realities of the Dominican Republic and India.
Aradhana Seth is a filmmaker, visual artist, designer and producer. With her creative mind and attention to detail she has transformed ideas to life which are a delight to the eye and stir the senses. Her production design credits include The Sky is Pink, The Sweet Requiem, The Hungary, Angry Indian Goddesses, Vara, West is West, Don, One Night with the King, Admissions, Easy, The Guru (India), Leela, Everybody says "I'm Fine!", Karvaan, Earth and Fire. As an Art Director, she has worked on London Has Fallen (India), The Darjeeling Limited, The Bourne Supremacy and Stiff Upper Lips (India). She produced A Suitable Boy, a six part series for BBC 1. She has directed/produced over 18 documentary films including DAM/AGE: A film with Arundhati Roy and A Lotus for You. A Buddha to Be.
Maurice Sánchez is a visual artist and photographer. His individual and collaborative works as a member of the artistic collective Shampoo and Biscuit, have been shown in biennials and exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art of Santo Domingo, at the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial in Puerto Rico, at the Havana Museum in Cuba and at the Brooklyn Museum of New York. He has also curated the exhibitions Arte Urbano Sarmiento, Tipicográfico (gráfica popular dominicana), and Gráfica Independiente Dominicana 2000-2010. His photographs, regularly published on his instagram account @elflowtropical, are an eloquent record of the varied expressions of contemporary street culture of the Dominican Republic.
We invite you to experience this captivating exchange and to reflect, through the images presented, what brings India and the Dominican Republic together and what tells them apart.
