A Day In The Life Of Independent Art Curator Tulika Ahuja
The pandemic has no doubt affected everybody, altering lifestyles and reminding us that often, what was once considered ordinary cannot be taken for granted. Here, a young curator shows how a day in her life looks like.
Tulika Ahuja is one to watch. Last April, the 28-year-old established Mama Magnet, her one-woman art programming consultancy that aims to bring innovative art encounters to the public and “collect an archive of our time”.
Tulika Ahuja (in red) at the opening of A Most Absurd Guide exhibition which she curated at UltraSuperNew Gallery.
Since then, she’s curated multiple shows including the much-buzzed-about Inner Like The OutAR, an immersive audio-visual experience by artists Reza Hasni and Tiong Hong Siah; set designer Tina Fung and electronic producer Intriguant at Singapore Art Week in January.
Hello Tulika, how did the pandemic affect your day-to-day routine?
"The pandemic increased the amount of time spent online significantly. Earlier it used to a lot more physical gatherings and chance encounters. I’ve made changes to segment work and play spaces at home, because I’m mostly home all day. I think I can still be better at separating the two, though.
I think before the pandemic there was a lot that kept me distracted. Now I feel more settled with the idea of routines — like heading to a ceramics studio every Monday for the past year, for example. My relationship with food has changed; food was rarely a highlight in my week. I now find comfort in a good meal with good company, sometimes cooking with friends. I’m also more comfortable with whipping up a meal for myself now."
How did it change the way you approach curating?
"I curated my first virtual-only exhibition in 2020, Centre for Altered Togetherness with artists Reza Hasni and Tiong Hong Siah. I don’t think we would have adopted this medium of expression if it wasn’t for the pandemic. Curating digitally has made me more aware of visitor experience and attention spans — I think there’s been some shift in my audience awareness.
I think the pandemic has also had a conscious influence on the themes I’ve put out - in the past year I’ve worked with artists to express isolation, absurdities and connection to nature, for example."
Did you experience any changes in perspectives during this period?
"I really appreciate the one-on-one friendships being socially distant has brought. It’s strangely helped to strengthen connections with friends and some artists turned friends.
Its also widened my idea of productivity - I no longer view productivity as just ticking a few to-do items off my calendar. I realised doing nothing can sometimes be productive too."
What prompted you to start Mama Magnet?
"I officiated the company in April last year out of my bedroom. It was born out of a desire to bring art experiences to the general public and form my own personal relations with artists. At that time I felt like I was working on too many short-term projects, where once an idea was presented, there wasn’t much room for it to go anywhere after one run. I guess I wanted to try building something more long-term."
What does Mama Magnet aim to do?
"Create experiential art encounters for an audience that’s curious and open. Collaborate with artists while finding new ways to present art. Collect an archive of our current time."
Below, Tulika takes us through a typical day in her work week.
9 AM
“I’m least motivated to wake up when the sky is grey or when I hear it raining outside – like today. To get myself going, I stretch my limbs, drink some water, walk around the house and do a bit of yoga on my acupuncture mat.”
NOON
"This is when I typically get into virtual work meetings about shows that are coming to a close or still in progress or the works – I’ve an upcoming one for Singapore Art Week 2022 that I can’t share details of at the moment as we’re still in the midst of setting things up with collaborators.”
1:30 PM
“Having moved to Balestier a few months ago, I’m still getting used to the neighbourhood. One of my favourite finds is a vegetarian stall at St Michael’s Bus Terminal. Nowadays I try to avoid eating meat when I can and I’m happy that this stall makes it easy. I order kopi siew dai and settle down for lunch.”
2:30 PM
“Bussing down to UltraSuperNew Gallery on Tyrwhitt Road where we are into our last week of A Most Absurd Guide, an exhibition of fun, satirical paintings that I curated featuring Krack! Studio from Indonesia; Brenda Tan aka Hellopigu from Singapore; and Soika Vomiter from the Philippines.
It’s been a great run – many interesting conversations have been had around memes, metaphors and everyday logic. I use the chance to also catch up with gallery in-charge Hilya and Brenda, who’s popped by, as well as chat with visitors. It’s always nice to connect with new people over the themes of my shows. I then settle into a spot to review some concepts and cost estimates for potential audio-visual experiences that are in the works for next year.”
5:30 PM
“I’ve to text some artists to update them on these spray painting workshops that they’re supposed to conduct, but have had a low take-up rate because of the rising Covid-19 community cases. It’s unfortunate that our plans have to constantly change, but it is what it is.”
6.30 PM
“Off to Kampong Glam Community Club for my weekly ceramics lessons. I started on them a year ago to reconnect with a skill that I had first tried in primary school... It’s nice to look away from the screen for a few hours and focus on just creating with no agenda.”
A version of this article appeared in the October 2021 Life Is Beautiful edition of FEMALE