‘Compositae – A PGDP Cross-Over’ is the PGDP exhibition for SMI Collective, curated and facilitated by Sudebi Thakurata, co-designed by the 2023-24 batch of PGDP students completing their year-long journey. In a world where individual success, final work, products, numbers and outcomes are often highlighted, this exhibition celebrates their collective journeys, mapping individual learnings, discoveries, dilemmas and choices that have shaped their path. This was made possible by framing, following, pursuing and sustaining a multitude of lines of inquiries.

At the heart of this exhibition is a non-linear, multi-layered book, hosted on this website which acts both as a reservoir of collective experience and a canvas of myriad perspectives. This is not just a collective portfolio of practice – various sections of this book have emerged through deeply immersive, reflective processes of looking at individual and collective work from various lenses, through many modes and media. The aspiring practitioners revisited their year-long journey through metaphors and imagery, through text, visuals and audio-visuals. They framed their lines of inquiries, discussed and debated the basis of their selection of pieces of work, tried to create a glossary that can create the foundation of a shared language, reflected on how their overall journey has been one of a roller-coaster ride. They mulled over the main actions that they engaged with and the main concepts that they delved into through which they became ‘Jacks of many trades’. 

The journey of this unique collaboration among 28 aspiring practitioners and the creative director/curator was rooted in juxtapositions:

• Reflection-action

• Me-we

• Individual-collective

• Form-Function

• Order- Chaos

• Context-Concept

• Process-Outcome

• Immersion-Imagination

• Letting in-letting go

• Authenticity-aesthetics

In alignment with an overarching metaphor of ‘Crossing Over’, the aspiring practitioners of all the disciplines of PGDP show the diverse ways in which this 'crossing over' has happened for them. The audience/reader then navigates this space, stepping into the shoes of the learners through reflection and inquiry. This would happen via four frameworks of learning that the aspiring practitioners located each of their pieces of work in: identities, interactions, relationships, and actions.

Additionally, by also juxtaposing and transcending various dualities in provocative sections such as: for-with, within-without, and-but and from-towards, that have emerged through a deeply immersive, facilitated process, the audience/reader gets to walk the lines of inquiries the inquirers embarked upon in this liminal space.

This work is not an attempt at gaining perfection but it is an opportunity to celebrate the rawness of learning, to savour mistakes, to encourage explorations and experimentations rather than sticking to tried-and-tested formulae and templates, to honour risk taking over following winning strategies and lastly, to embrace uncertainty, ambiguity, collaboration and conversations. 

Our work and processes are also hosted on this website.