SHADOW COMMS/
Shiva Addanki
This is the webpage of SHADOW COMMS: an ongoing practice of art & research reflecting on planetary crisis
c/o shadowcomms@riseup.net
PAINTING & DRAWING
2023:
“Ghost Guns and Illegal Scooters”, 72” x 49”, Acrylic on Mulberry Paper & Nylon Shadecloth
“NYCCTV Rorschach”, 54” x 72”, Acrylic on Mulberry Paper & Shadecloth
“Illegal Scooter Tabloid Studies”, Diptych, Gouache & Ink on 9”x12” Toned Mulberry Paper
[Curated by Me, including the piece below]
“FURY AT THE POINT OF PRODUCTION”, 40” x 72”, Acrylic on Xuan Paper Mounted to Shadecloth, 2023
Acrylic & Conté on 37” x 72” Mulberry Paper
1. “Sugar Makes an Ecology of Hunger”
2. [Cotton Brings] “The Power to Utterly Ruin and Enslave the Debtor”
[పత్తి తెస్తుంది] “రుణగ్రస్తుడిని పూర్తిగా నాశనం చేసే మరియు బానిసలుగా మార్చే శక్తి”
3.”Fodya Nthawi Zonse Amalidwa Kuchokera Ku Ukapola” [Tobacco is Always Grown from Captivity [Slavery]]
4. Will the Forest Grow Back from the Rubber Plantations?
[ ரப்பர் தோட்டங்களில் இருந்து காடு மீண்டும் வளருமா?] *yet to be exhibited
Gouache & Ink on Toned Mulberry Paper, 9”x12”
1. “Against the World Plantation”
2.”Dark Sunrise: Malawi Cane Fields”
3. “Cane Cutters in Negros, Phillippines”
4. “The Infernal Refinery: Ecuador Sugar Plantation”
5. “Tobacco Inspector: Trinidad”
6. “Young Tobacco Pickers: Malawi”
7. “Elder Tobacco Picker: Malawi” [x]
8. “Rajasthan Cotton Pickers: Wide Angle”
9. “Afro-Indo-Oceanic Cottonfield- Conjoined Fate? Rajasthan to Sudan”
10. “Sudan Cottonfield: Date Unkown”
11. “Malawi Cotton in Transit”
12. “Drowned Lorry on Malawi Road” [x]
(All available except those marked with an [x])
“Bloody Palms: Debt & Development” , 40” x 30”, Acrylic on Canvas
SHADOW COMMS “Works On Paper” art show at PROPERTY IS THEFT, Brooklyn, NY, 4/7/2023-6/25/2023
Featuring original works from 2019-2023 reprinted in Shadow Comms
some works still available, inquire for price+ availability
“Fascism After the End of History”, Acrylic on Canvas, 24” x 36”
PRINTED WORK
SHADOW COMMS #3: AGAINST THE WORLD PLANTATION :
[mixed sizes], 28 pages risograph & laserjet color print. This publication documents the material exhibited in the first installment of the “Against the World Plantation” series, at Solitary Confinement in Richmond. Virginia in Fall 2023. It includes reproductions of 3 large acrylic on mulberry paper paintings portraying contemporary plantation labor, and 12 small gouache & ink on mulberry paper drawings focusing on the same cash crops (sugarcane, cotton, tobacco), but these were drawn exclusively from the photo catalog of the World Bank, taken in the mid to late 20th Century.
SHADOW COMMS #2, 40 pages (mixed sizes) multi-color risograph and photocopy, edition of 125. Available online and in person at Printed Matter , in person at Property Is Theft, and more soon
Shadow Comms #2 focuses on Partition Ecologies, drawing from the colonial-eye view of documentary photography to meditate on the violent sights of borders, counterinsurgency, austerity and climate crisis as they face the majorities of the world, along with responses of insurrection and resilience. This installment of the publication project prioritizes image and experiments in formal construction over text, featuring full color drawings & paintings along with extended inserts.
SHADOW COMMS VOL. 1 , 40 pages 11x17 multi-color risograph, 2022, edition of 250, (Available at The PIT and Printed Matter) Photocopy Edition Available at BRZD)
Description:
Shadow Comms Vol.1 is a collection of fragmentary meditations on radical left struggles in the South Asian subcontinent, from an ‘american born confused desi’. The project covers themes from the Indian Occupation of Kashmir to the rise of Hindu Fascism, histories of caste and british imperialism, the historic Farmer’s Strike, Naxalite groups, climate shock and garment workers struggle in Bangladesh, and more. This is a more focused regional scope than the first installment of Shadow Comms: it’s personally driven by frustration at neoliberal multicultural counterinsurgency in the wake of the George Floyd Uprising. Instead of approaching this through confessional and expository modes, the project stays with the modes of radical left surrealist traditions. This is crafted as agitprop/confrontation toward more radical forms of internationalism and solidarity among first-gen desis, and anybody alien or otherwise who can find resonance here.
[C.W.: As with Shadow Comms #0, There are images and descriptions of racialized violence]
^ Two versions of a Poster made in Solidarity with 2 Indonesion Political Prisoner, Printed on Risograph by Kohei (WWAV PUNK) for a solidarity event on 6/11/22 International Anarchist Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners in Tokyo JPN
^ “Okra [Bendakai] Flowers in the Americas”, 3-color Gradient Silkscreen Print, 12”x 18” , 11/2021, Edition of 25-- Available at Printed Matter
SHADOW COMMS #0 , 28 pgs 11x17 Color Photocopy, 2021. Edition of 250-- Available at Brown Recluse Zine Distro
MACHINE , 16 pgs 11 x 17 Black and White Photocopy, 2015 Edition of 150 (Out of Print)
BACTERIA, 16 pgs, 11 x 17 Black and White Photocopy on Creme Paper, 2014, Edition of 150, Out of Print
SHARDS, 16 pgs, 11 x 17 B&W Photocopy on Creme Paper, 2013, Edition of 100- Out of Print
POSTERS & GRAPHICS
These are agitprop poster images available for anybody to print and reproduce, as long as it’s not for profit. All images are Creative Commons
^ This design was printed on T-Shirts sold to raise funds for families vicitmized by police violence
^ This design was exhibited and distributed in the Community Art & Health Fair Organized by Art Against Displacement and The Coalition to Protect Chinatown & the LES
CAMARADERIE , SOURCES & FURTHER INFO
D4MT LABS INC: Where you can find the musical projects I’ve been involved with for the past decade
BROWN RECLUSE ZINE DISTRO: Distro of BIPOC radical print culture
OUR HOUSE INFO SHOP: anti-capitalist, anti-state, anti-imperialist infoshop where you can find SHADOW COMMS pubs among many more things. Lenapehoking (East BK)
PROPERTY IS THEFT: Info Shop, Record & Book Store & Community Space
INTERFERENCE ARCHIVE: an in-person & online resource to the grassroots... open source political education from below to the left, through material culture.
ABOLITION NOTES : A great online resource for abolitionist & leftist texts
JAMHOOR MAGAZINE: The best place to read South Asian Leftist research
You can find an interview with me about my arts practice and background by SIGNAL journal on the JustSeeds website here.
“Unidentified Mayan Wrapped in Sanskrit Testifying at the UN”, Ink on Newsprint, 9” x 12”, 5/2020