Vedika Rampal

14. Vedika Rampal, Artefact no. २७, 2024, digital print hand transferred onto copper, 30 x 40cm. NFS

What happens when the pre-colonial artefact is encountered within the post-colonial moment? This series examines the collapse of linear temporalities as a consequence of the Empire’s violence. All origin is obfuscated. The ancient murals on the walls of the Ajanta Caves have been marred by colonial shellacs and varnishes, existing only in fragmentation. When their poor image circulates to the artist’s camera-eye; the shutter further fragments. The copper plate both concedes to and resists against capture at will. Whatever image pertains is precarious. Once inscribed, the copper oxidises — it too is subject to change. All attempts at preservation are invariably rendered as futile. Everything and nothing is lost within these encounters.

Vedika Rampal is an Indian-born emerging artist whose post-disciplinary practice intuitively oscillates between image and image forms, using sculpture, textiles, photography and text to interrogate Western museological modalities enshrined in colonial optics. Drawing upon inherited memories, fictive imaginings and archival research, Rampal’s work reflects upon the duality of trauma and yearning, capture and resistance, loss and agency, innate to these histories, to suggest the simultaneity of counternarratives to imperial legacies. She has been recently selected as a finalist for the 2025 Artspace Fellowship and was the recipient of the Dr. Harold Schenberg Award as part of the Hatched National Graduate Showcase 2024 at PICA. Her work has been exhibited at Dominik Mersch Gallery, UNSW Galleries, Firstdraft Gallery, Brunswick Street Gallery, and AIRspace Projects.