Ujwal Mantha

About

Hi!

I’m typing this at 1:06 PM on August 4th 2024,

I know you’re feeling a lot of things right now (whether you want to study here or you already did and have since become a different person somewhere far away).

There’s no one here right now but us, even the screen separating us is but an illusion. I’m feeling a lot of things and my fingers tremble a little as I type this out. I’m a whole person, not just these words you read. Can you feel me now reaching out to you?

I’m South Indian, Telugu to be exact, and in my culture’s new year, we celebrate the coming of spring by eating a special type of chutney (Ugadi Pachadi) that consists of six different tastes all in one dish (sweet, sour, salty, bitter, piquant and spicy hot). It signifies that life is a mixture of all sorts of emotions, such as joy, sadness, anger and disgust. In this year that I’ve spent exploring the way art schools could and should be, I’ve felt everything. Even now, my emotions threaten to spill over the side of me as I imagine my life in the coming months as I move back home and start looking for jobs and plan out the next chapter of my life.

Maybe I have a responsibility here? To tell you more about my project? About the Common College of Art? About my time at the RCA perhaps? Maybe you’re looking for advice, tips, a warning?

Reach out to me, shoot me a message, send a pigeon. There is nothing that this short bio could say that a friendly chat can’t say better.

Will you come out the other end of this feeling a different kind of way? a better kind of way?

I’m not sure. It is my first time on this earth and I’m still figuring things out.

That is something we have in common.