28.1.2026 18.00–20.00, Museum of Impossible Forms

Welcome to a talk by Sarasija Subramanian presenting Reliable Copy organized by Rab-Rab Press at Museum of Impossible Forms.

Sarasija will introduce Reliable Copy’s publishing practice over the years, focussing on their (Fine) Arts Dissertations Series, facsimiles of graduate-level college dissertations by artists from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Gujarat, India), the first art college established in India post-Independence.

Functioning as an early mode of artists’ writing which encouraged articulation, research, reflection, rigour, and documentation as key modes of learning within the largely studio-based programme, the dissertation was-and continues to be—a component which encouraged students to reflect on their studio practice and processes.

She will also discuss their book ‘Modernism/ Murderism: The Modern Art Debate in Kumar’ which compiles (and presents for the first time in English) a debate around modern art’s emergence into the Indian subcontinent from 1959 to 1964 between Jyoti Bhatt, then a young artist in Baroda, Pherozeshah Mehta, an art connoisseur and writer from Karachi, and readers and respondents of the Gujarati periodical ‘Kumar’.

Sarasija Subramanian is an artist based in Bangalore, India, where she is also the editor of Reliable Copy, a publishing house and curatorial practice for works, projects, and writing by artists. Reliable Copy was founded in 2018, and publishes books and documents, curates exhibitions and screenings, undertakes research projects, and hosts a wide variety of public programming. It is represented by the artists Nihaal Faizal and Sarasija Subramanian. This is the sixth Publishing as Scaffolding talk organised by Rab-Rab Press. The talks are supported by the Kone Foundation.