Conversations with sāgar kāmath

Today we’d like to introduce you to sāgar kāmath.

sāgar, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India and my family immigrated to Pittsburgh, where I have lived most of my life. My father is an artist, so I began observing and learning from him at a very young age. For middle and high school, I attended an arts magnet school where I majored in Visual Arts. During my senior year, I began to start thinking about overlaps between many of my interests including climate, community practice, and art, through my involvement with organizations like the Land Art Generator Initiative. I went on to study civil engineering at the University of Pittsburgh where I continued looking for opportunities to combine my interests of art and sustainability. After graduating in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and an unstable job market, I decided it was the perfect time to shoot my shot and apply to graduate school. I just graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with my MFA in Multidisciplinary Art in May 2023 and have been working on trying to figure out the next chapter of my life!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wouldn’t consider my path “linear” in any regard, but I feel like all of my experiences continue to feed into my practice and work in some way or another. While I was working on my engineering degree, I took all my available electives in the fine arts department. It was pretty frustrating trying to explain to so many people that there are overlaps between my two interests. I have been lucky enough to work with folks that celebrate creativity and support my artistic endeavors. But of course, trying to build multiple careers that have different trajectories is difficult and it can be hard to maintain a work-life balance. I think I am still struggling to figure out where I want to go with all of my interests and experiences. I am thankful for all of the opportunities I have been able to participate in so far!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an interdisciplinary artist working between mediums of painting, sculpture, installation, sound, video, collage, public art, and dance. My practice investigates the multiplicities of my identities as an Indian-born American through narrative building, materiality, line, space, and movement. My research-based methodology simultaneously interrogates his body, the surrounding landscape, and colonial histories through the engagement of non-linear time.

I am extremely proud of my project that I created while I was an Artist in Residence for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Museum’s Centennial celebration in May 2023. For the two-week festival, I created a series of site-specific sculptures using bamboo, banana leaves, and hempcrete that related concepts of time and decay within a museum to climate change and diasporic Asian identities. The organic materials wilted and changed and at the end of the two weeks, they were composted.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think risk taking in theory is one of the best things you can do for yourself. For me, I think I really rely on my instinct. Much of my artistic training has asked me to push myself until right before the moment of failure, which can be a pretty unhealthy practice at times. But I have learned to trust myself. Honestly, I had no idea if my project at the Smithsonian was going to survive the outdoors…but thankfully, it was great!

I’m not sure if this is something specific that sets me apart, but I am oftentimes am pretty delusional about my skill sets. I can convince myself that I am capable of doing anything, which oftentimes leads me to pretty frustrating and humbling moments…but often leads to the creation of work that I couldn’t have conceptualized before I started.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sagarkamath.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sog_r

Image Credits
All images courtesy of Sāgar Kāmath