RAGHAVI CHINNADURAI
She/ They
is a woman interdisciplinary artist-curator–researcher from Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, working through the intertwined practices of feminist craft, decolonial curating, migrant world-making, and counter-archiving. My work centres the body as archive, drawing from oral whispers, domestic repetitions, the frictions of folded sarees, embodied wisdom, and other peripheral sites of knowledge held within women’s everyday lives.
SCRAPBOOK
Working across curation, installation, painting, writing, yoga, and community-led research, my practice brings together embodied, ethnographic, and autoethnographic methods, building transnational, collaborative ecosystems that foreground marginalised archives, challenge dominant narratives, and expand how women’s invisible labour, knowledge, and world-making practices are understood within contemporary cultural production—softening and blurring the boundaries between domestic ritual, art, and craft.
raghavi1991@gmail.com
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CV
ACADEMIC
2022-23 Royal College of Art, London, Curating Contemporary Art MA ( Logitech Scholar)
Royal College of Art, London,
Graduate Diploma, Humanities, Distinction
University of Oxford, Distance Education, Indian Art, Online
University of Oxford, Distance Education, Learning to Look at Modern Art, Online.
Certificate IV in Design, RMIT, Melbourne
B.Tech, Biotechnology, SVCE, Chennai
EXPERIENCE 2025–ongoing
kolam.ephemeral, Transnational intersectional curatorial research unit — Research Lead / Curator
2024–2025
Associate Curator, Primary
2016–2025
Founder / Curator, Punchmittai (Experimental studio engaging with contemporary Tamil art and aesthetics)
2022
Retail Assistant, Natural History Museum
2021
Museum Management Intern, DakshinChitra Heritage Museum
Assisted across Curation, Painting & Textile Conservation, Hospitality & Tourism, Finance, Publicity, and Library.
2020
Writer / Illustrator, Penndiagram
Independent online magazine publishing South Indian women’s perspectives on transitional socio-politics.
2020
Writer / Illustrator, Pyxis
2019
Gallery Intern, Apparao Gallery
2019
Art & Design Mentor, Lead by Design
Volunteered as mentor for girls (Grades 4–8) from underprivileged background, guiding them through design-led problem solving.
2017
Community Engagement Officer, Heritage Inspired Involved in the research and development of the project,
Co-developed a community performance piece that activated the local art ecosystem
2016
Social Media Manager & Curatorial Lead, SilkAura
Handled showcasing and marketing of handloom sarees from local weaving pockets of India.
2015
Art Co-teacher, Vaels Billabong International School
2013
Cognizant Technology Solutions
PROJECTS2025
Kolam, an Art Fund–supported project at Primary, Nottingham developed through sustained collaboration with the Nottingham Tamil diasporic community and photographers and practitioners from Tamil Nadu, evolving into an exhibition and multi-format public programme.
2023
Partnering with Delfina Foundation, project Home under construction,RCA degree show, London. More>
2023
Quantum Noise, Public programme, RCA
2023
Games and Playing as neo-liberal rituals, research based public programme, RCA (curatorial)
2023
Elements, Ceramics and Glasses WIP show, RCA (curatorial)
2022
Cast a Shadow, Group Exhibition, SafeHouse, London
2021
What a Waste, The Koppel Project (artist)
2021
‘The Other Side of Life’ Exhibition, DakshinaChitra Museum, Chennai (curatorial)
2021
Exhibited installation and sculpture at Kadambari gallery, Chennai (artist)
2020
Associated with Aaval Postcard Project, Almaari
ONGOING PRACTICE-LED RESEARCH
2023–Present
Dear Sita; Long-term oral and performative research treating women’s unfulfilled wishes as a starting point for understanding wellbeing and everyday health in Tamil diasporic life.
2024–Present
DIY Anarchist Bodies. Curatorial archival interventions in British Museum collections examining borders, patriarchy and women’s embodied autonomy within colonial visual systems.
2021–Present
Kolam. Ongoing curatorial research exploring Tamil threshold art to frame new curatorial methodologies addressing transnational, intersectional social justice.
WORKSHOPS
2024–25
Designed and delivered a multi-format programme of workshops, photo-walks and in-conversation events as part of the Kolam exhibition, collaborating with feminist performers, marginalised artists, writers, local community groups and the Tamil diasporic community. The programme explored identity, care, labour, caste consciousness, migrant and diasporic experience, environment and community well-being through collective making and critical dialogue.
2024–25
Collaboration with Nottingham Tamil Kuzhumam (NTK) — Worked with young Tamil diasporic children aged 5–14 to explore migration, identity and well-being through creative practice, including filmmaking, animation, zine-making and material-led workshops.
2023
Cooking as a co-curatorial method building community, RCA
2017–2021
Series of art-building workshops online and at various sites in Chennai, India, as facilitative framework to promote and instigate creativity within Tamil public.
WRITING2025
Kolam notebook – Rethinking Curatorial patterns from the Margins
2024
Dead fish to Flying Bird – Relational patterning and Decolonial Readings of Women’s Labour and Care
2023
Hypothetical Interview with Kohinoor – Animism as a methodology, developing curatorial frameworks
2023
“Crimes of empire/crimes of empire” – An exploration of Western encyclopedic museum’s colonial legacy