Synopsis:

63 Tapes is a long-form film project comprising sixty-three diary-like films drawn from more than one hundred hours of research footage recorded between 2007 and 2017. Ranging from five to ninety minutes, the films trace the early years and continuing legacy of Jangarh Singh Shyam, the pioneering Pardhan-Gond artist from Patangarh in Madhya Pradesh.

Filmed in Patangarh and Bhopal, the project brings together the voices of Jangarh’s family, friends, fellow artists and members of the wider community. Many of those who appear in these recordings were themselves only beginning to paint. The footage therefore preserves a particular moment, when an artistic language was still taking shape and its wider history had yet to be written.