As a visual and performance artist, Kolkata-born Priyanka Jain loves to tell stories through recitation, dance, and audience interaction. But she often surprises her audience.
Her posters feature intricate miniature paintings that suggest an exotic Indian performance. Instead, Jain dives into neuroscience, challenging expectations and sparking new interest. “It’s a novel expression,” she says with a smile. “Imagine an Indian dance combined with a neuroscience lecture—it’s a bizarre mix.”
Jain’s specialty is picture recitation in verse, accompanied by images in props and set design. She blends reciting, singing, and dancing into a captivating performance.
Jain was a fellow at the Art Foundation of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. It was during her Master’s in Conceptual Art at the Stuttgart Art Academy in Germany that she grappled with her East-West culture shock and discovered her passion for narrative art.
When she returned to India, Jain focused on traditional narrative arts. While storytelling was rare in urban areas, it thrived in rural villages, often without institutional support. “These folk artisans, often overlooked, use their performances to attract customers in craft fairs,” Jain explains.
But now the traditional artists like Patachitra painters from West Bengal add QR codes to their scrolls, allowing people to access related songs and recitations on YouTube.
Jain believes storytelling as a multi-modal art form offers immense scope for artistic expression — something not typically taught in art schools.
Jain moved to Melbourne just before the major lockdown to work on her creative PhD at RMIT, exploring ancient Indian traditions of picture recitation—storytelling through images like Kaavad, Phad, and Patachitra (art forms of Rajasthan and West Bengal that originated in religious rituals but are now struggling to stay relevant).
Her research aimed to uncover why these practices had declined and to find ways to revive them for contemporary audiences.
She crafts new narratives using scientific research and combines visual arts, spoken-word poetry, and Indian dance in her performances.
Since her arrival, Jain has performed Why Runs The Abhisarika — a picture recitation exploring running as a romantic pursuit — at the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2023, Sydney Fringe Festival 2023, and Adelaide Fringe Festivals 2023 and 2024.
To give some context, the Abhisarika, one of eight heroines in classical Sanskrit literature, is unique for actively seeking her lover, even in stormy weather. Jain’s performance explores the Abhisarika’s defiance of of social norms and adventurous spirit. It examines symbols from medieval Indian art, like snakes and lightning, and connects them to modern neuroscience, particularly dopamine.
“I write the script, memorise it, wear the Indian Kathak costume, and perform through singing, dancing, and audience interaction,” Jain says. “My shows attract all kinds of audiences, including neuroscientists, who have thoroughly enjoyed them.”
Jain fondly recalls her first performance in Australia at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, where only five people attended. “But it was a milestone,” she says. “One attendee, a professor of archaeology from Flinders University, found the performance intelligent. That gave me the confidence to perform in Sydney.”
In Sydney, John Napier, a professor of Musicology at the University of New South Wales, told her, “This is exactly how traditions are kept alive.”
Another member of the Indian diaspora said, “My grandmother would have seen this growing up. Thank you for reconnecting me with her traditions.”
Why Runs The Abhisarika was nominated in the “Words and Ideas” category at the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2023.
Recently, Jain presented a reading of her latest story Exit Left Gastric Artery on migration within the human body at La Mama Theatre as part of its “Explorations” series, which offers artists a platform to showcase works in progress or under development.
“A stomach cell bored with its job of digestion seeks adventure and hops onto a red blood cell for a journey like no other,” she describes the project.
“I wanted feedback from both the scientific and general audience communities,” Jain says, having consulted academics at the University of Melbourne’s Gastroenterology and Neuroscience departments to inform her work.
This story originated during the pandemic while Jain was in lockdown. “When I talk about stomach cells, I’m also sharing my experiences from different countries. I wonder if the biases and prejudices we face in the outside world might also be present within our own bodies. The lines between the narrator and the character blur, which is quite touching,” she says.
Jain’s work resonates with multicultural Australia by celebrating the power of storytelling, a tradition found in every culture, including the First Nations’ Dreamtime stories. Jain believes storytelling helps unite people, as shared stories create a collective experience.
She likes the field of narrative medicine, where doctors listen to patients’ stories to understand their experiences. Jain finds this idea fascinating, especially projects by cancer survivors, who document their journeys in the form of photo stories.
“Stories heal. It would be fascinating to have a festival of picture recitation some day.”
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