first draft (2018-) is a collective of five artist-friends -- Anarya, Priyank Gothwal, Sonam Chaturvedi, Akshay Sethi, Priyesh Gothwal -- from Delhi, India, creating spaces for coming together and building a commons. It was conceived through pop-up shows of draft artworks and, later, in response to the pandemic years, it evolved into ‘gatherings’ as a way to slow down, reflect together, and create shared, collaborative spaces for intimacies, friendships, and mutual support. The practice is of a slippery, nomadic, insoluble nature – moving freely and playfully across spaces, ideas, disciplinary borders, and beyond consumable definitions and norms, by enabling prompt-based gatherings across India and outside.

There have been 4 pop-up shows and 26 gatherings at/with FICA India, Asia Art Archive in India, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan (Delhi), Kaalo.101 (Kathmandu), Watermans Art Centre (London), Temporary Unit (Singapore), Body Embedding Residency (Vienna), Peripheral Acts (Dubai), and with artist-friends. first draft is the Indian collaborator in creating the South Asian Playground with artist-run independent spaces in Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.