A contemporary artist and curator, Vidisha-Fadescha’s work spans several mediums and disciplines. They use collaborations, collectives, and experiential art to explore ideas of trans-feminism, intersectionality and queer theory.

Born in Jaipur, Fadescha holds a bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Delhi and a master’s from the California Institute of the Arts, USA. Their early work included experiments with toy cameras and video art, while a series of still-life studies and portraits addressed questions around identity, gender, desire and sexuality.

Fadescha’s work has been included in exhibitions such as Pratibimb & Showtime (Matthieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai, 2010); Sampling India: Of Blind Men and Elephants (The Empty Quarter, Dubai, 2009); and the Format International Photography Festival (Derby, UK, 2010). In 2011, they participated in ALTlab Alternative Photography residency, organised by Goa-CAP, where they produced daguerreotypes and also curated the weeklong annual event, In Plato’s Cave. In 2008, they were awarded Best Emerging Photographer by the Fashion Design Council of India. In 2011, they received the Toto Funds the Arts and Tasveer Award for Photography. 

Fadescha was also a part of Fotofest International Biennale, Houston in 2018. Among the shows they’ve curated are Public Pedagogy As Arts Practice (2018), at KHOJ International Artists’ Association; Assembly of Access: Body, Space and The Archive (2018), at TIFA Working Studios, 2018) and (there is no epilogue) at the India Art Fair, 2017; KHOJ, 2018.

In 2020, Fadescha exhibited Burn All The Books That Call You The Unknown in Sydney, Australia, supported by Parramatta Artists Studios and the Australian Council for the Arts. The installation reflected upon intimacies on the dancefloor as an archive of histories, violence and desire. Another installation, titled Qworkoholic Anonymous, that looks at queer labour and fatigue was shown at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi (2020 and 2021). In 2019, Fadescha initiated Dragery, a social space to explore questions around gender, queerness and representation through drag. In 2020, they were commissioned by the International Curators’ Forum to curate a conversation series along with Jyotsna Siddharth. The duo worked on building dialogues around caste and gender as Sive, a social art lab and collective.

Fadescha also hosts Party Office (2020), an anti-caste, anti-racist and trans-feminist art and social space. Under Party Office, they have curated and commissioned several projects. Along with their collaborator Shaunak Mahbubani, they also released some dance to remember, some dance to forget (2020), a performance video that was showcased at the Nottingham Arts Mela, UK (2020). Other projects include Consent of the Governed: Kink, Constitution and Race (2021); Party at the End of Gender-Normativity (Wienwoche Vienna, Austria 2021); and Trans Dance Revolution (apekart, New York, USA 2021). In 2022, Fadescha curated an art exhibition Let no one mistake us for the fruit of violence for Goethe-Institut Bangladesh’s programme M3: Man, Male and Masculinity, in collaboration with the Drik Picture Library. The exhibition looked at various perspectives of gender and patriarchy in the South Asian landscape. 

Fadescha is also a DJ, sound artist and an event host. They have been an artist at The Nightlife Residency by iprojectspace and The Neighbourhood, both in Beijing, as well as a guest artist for Today Is Our Tomorrow, organised by the Publics and Museum of Impossible Forms in Helsinki, Finland.

At the time of writing, Fadescha lives and works in New Delhi.