Changing career path with an MFA in Art & Humanities

Moving from India to Dundee to find her voice, Dhira Chakraborty, 30, is using her interdisciplinary Masters in Art & Humanities to transition her career from an Assistant Film Director onto a new path. 

“The best thing about this course is the sense of interdisciplinary practice, you can walk into the space with absolutely no idea or no intention of what to do. And by sheer amount of disciplines and routes it has to offer, you end up getting attracted to so many things – like different workshops, and literature ideas. The entire university has a very open sense, you can approach any department and just have a conversation, and from there start an entire research project of your own.”

Inspired by the sense of perception and idea of space and place in a poetic sense, Dhira has created an experience for her Masters project.

Dhira’s practice revolves around the ideas of material poetry, working with materials that are easily accessible, commonplace and everyday.

“I primarily work with print making (the printmaking studios) which is my absolute favourite place in the entire university, working with the medium of waterless lithography, which is very intuitive and close to the ideas of drawing and painting."

Dhira, who was born in Kolkata and raised in New Delhi, completed her undergraduate degree in Animation & VFX at Picasso College in 2009. Prior to coming to Dundee to pursue her MFA, Dhira spent 9 years working in film and advertising in India, working across the industry in Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Kolkata.

Looking forward to continuing her journey into a new career path, Dhira is looking at residencies, artists programmes or working with museums, where she hopes to bring her cardboard pop-up space into the community.

You can view Dhira’s final installation, along with those of her classmates, when The Masters Showcase launches online on Friday 3 September.