Thasil Suhara Backer is a self-taught interdisciplinary art practitioner, researcher, and writer, formally trained in Theatre Arts. He is a self-identifying neurodivergent individual. In his practice, he has developed hybrid forms of synthesizing photography and has produced sculptural assemblages, performances, and essays to examine vernacular meta-relics. His practice navigates ordinary, geopolitical, and archival landscapes and locations across the archipelago.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions:​

 

• 5th ​​Peru Bienal, (PE) (2026).

• Vantage Point Sharjah 12, Sharjah Art Foundation, Curated by Sara Al Mheiri, Curator, SAF, (UAE) (2024).

• Permanent Conference, Curated by Shristi Sainani, Gallery Navya, Delhi Art Week, (IN) (2023).

• 51st Annual exhibition, Kerala Lalitkala Academy (IN) (2023).

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Selected Group OVR:

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• CODED. , Terrain.art, (IN) (2026).

• Deep Objekt [ ]: Agency at the Computational Turn, Foreign Objekt; Organised by Sepideh Majidi, (US) (2024).

• Care is Art, Art is Care, Curated by Insight of an Eco Artist and hosted by Underground Art and Design (UAAD), (US) (2024).

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Selected Contributions:​

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• Looking Back at Malayalam Cinema with SR Praveen, Perspectives, MART, formerly MAP Academy, a unit of  Art & Photography Foundation India, and an institutional partner of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), (IN) (2026). ​

• A Subversive Iconography of Apasmara the Dwarf, Perspectives, IMART, formerly MAP Academy, a unit of  Art & Photography Foundation India, and an institutional partner of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), (IN) (2026).

• Spatial Palimpsests: Inhabiting History, Ecology, and the Personal, Critical Collective, (IN) (2026).

• Third Bodies: Unsettling Natures in Posthuman Ecologies, Writing Natures_Issue 2, Insubordinate Vitalities: Nature across Documentary, Issue Conceptualised and edited by Arushi Vats, Shared Ecologies: A Shyama Foundation Initiative, (IN) (2026).

• Ruins of Egmore, Perspectives, IMART formerly MAP Academy, a unit of  Art & Photography Foundation India, and an institutional partner of the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP), (IN) (2025).

• How to get ready for a protest, Home is Where the Hearts Strives, Anthology on Place and Sound, edited by Philipp Rhensius, Janina Neustupny, Thomas Burkhalter, Hannes Liechti, and Vinzent Maria Preuß (eds.), Norient Sound, (CH) (2025).

• Dialogical Body – Breathing in the ruins, Accompanying text for the fourth session of Educational Programme Bárawa: On freestyle~improvisation as aesthetic tool and strategy, Published by Journeys of OCEAN / UNI, TBA21 – Academy, (IT) (2025).

• Performing Mobility: A Performer’s Counter Archive, Issue 20, Hakara: bilingual journal of creative expression, (IN) (2023).

• Contemporary Pollution, Elephant in the Room, Published by Conflictorium, (IN), Stroom Den Haag, (NL) (2022).​​

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Awards/Fellowships/Grants:​

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• Young Writer's Award in Photography presented by PhotoSouthAsia and Critical Collective (CC), (IN) (2026).​

• Art Practice Programme - Explorations, India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), Sony Pictures Entertainment Fund, (IN) (2023).

• Young Artist Fellowship, Ministry of Culture, Government of India (2013–2014).

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