Merging Metamorphosis
This show brings together two powerful artists and independent mediums, exploring their common experience of the creation of art. Both intrinsically interact with the pieces they make: molding, nourishing, creating, destroying and then ultimately reviving. The works are alive, incarnations of the artist but also the genesis of the artist’s becoming!
In his current series, Inamdar allows his canvas to participate in its own creation, allowing it to slowly and whimsically absorb the color and chart its own path. The lines drawn merge into the oil and create unique shapes, pulling in the viewer to explore their mystery. Surpassing time and space, the works challenge with their dichotomy: soft and loud, minimal and maximal, monotone and colorful, all in the same moment. In his words, ‘the artist becomes the instrument, the work becomes music”.
Davis embraces a similar dichotomy in his sculptural creations. Sharp stainless steel evolves to become a delicate fluid design and enormity in scale is balanced by sensitivity to the intricacies of his inspiration. Nature is the muse for this series as he brings to life architectural plants like blossoms, orchids, creepers and bamboo groves in a truly Contemporary way! Davis’s art pushes the viewer to see these seemingly finite natural elements in a more solid, permanent and statement form. He describes this endeavor, “I am essentially a maker and my engineering and design educations allow me to push the limits of materials and technologies for a desired effect”.
Two artists. Two mediums.
One merging intention: engage intuitively, challenge boundaries, and trigger an ongoing metamorphosis.
Curated by Sanjana Shah
(Thursday, December 9 - Sunday, January 9)
Dreamscapes
The world around us plays a distinct role in formulating our perceptions, ideas and inspirations. The scape is defined as any extended view or the picture/representation of one. Argentinian artist Julia Romano and Indian artist Meghna Patpatia, though divided by geography and culture, merge in their expression of this intricate relationship with the scape: a relationship that is universally experienced by all on this planet. Both take existing realistic elements and combine them with the surreal elements of mythology and ancient anthropology. The endeavor is to make these dreamscapes that question what is real and what is imagined, what is physical and what is metaphorical. Romano explores the multi-layered historical imprint on the land while Patpatia ponders on elements of an imagined future, creating together a thought-provoking narrative!
In a world where awareness of the value of land and the study of ancestral patterns is key to ensuring a sustainable future, Romano and Patpatia’s works not only aesthetically appease but also contain an underlying message of awakening. Aspects of co-existence and ecological and cultural synergy are beautifully highlighted through these dreamscapes, but with a subtle undertone of the very real threat of depletion in a dystopian future. Much like the land around us, the art is layered, multi-faceted and deep in composition. The combined artistic dreamscapes of this two-person show help in bringing the world a little bit closer and opening our minds a little bit wider.
Curated by Sanjana Shah
(Thursday, October 21 - Thursday, November 25)
Plot - Points
Everything begins with pathos, or affect. It is something that forces one to think. This hook -Plot-Point- the metaphorical narrative tendency is what the show explores through the works of 11 artists. The exhibition undertakes a Barthecian way of exploring the notion of identity and its ever-evolving status through the ecologies of migration, land, and power.
Where the practices on display are diverse in the use of materials and media, the underlying concerns are concurrent, at times even intersecting. This diversity allows for an amplified sensory experience of interacting with the works. The element of sound, and visual tactility enable a certain grace in interacting with the works.
The objects on display are born out of an innate desire. A desire subjected to a number of readings by each practitioner. It is in this process of readings that this said desire opens up a wide range of source material ultimately carrying the work as a ‘network of readings’. It is here that each of the physical works becomes a phantasmagoria of research.
What becomes of utmost relevance are the many parallels each artist draws to ‘objects’, ‘icons’, styles, and epochs. The nonchalance with which they begin to affect our reading of each work and the show by consequence is refreshingly engaging.
With this I present to you “Plot-Points”.
Curated by Satyajit Dave
(Thursday, August 12 - Wednesday, September 1)
Discourses
Khanjan Dalal’s recent body of works looks into a variety of serious issues with a twist of wry humor. For this exhibition, he adopts the Foucauldian format of the ‘discourse’ to thread together and bring into view his varying concerns expressed through his practice.
In the first section of works, Khanjan’s discourses take the format of speech bubbles in different shapes and formats, from punctuation marks to floral formats, he freely borrows from popular culture and the millennium format of chat boxes to the point where the speech-bubbles actually form a third entity like a fox or a bird. Besides giving rise to these mystical creatures Khanjan also talks about the fragility of our conversations.
The wall-mounted sculptures made from electric fired ceramics references our hyper-connected world, and the cacophony of the fibre-optical universe, which often leads to a glut of information. Even when every conversation remains forever recorded in cyberspace, the proliferation of these conversations often renders them blank or void. Is Khanjan reclaiming these orphan texts with his mythical, fairy-tale creatures? We are left to contemplate this while we enjoy the forms on a purely visual level.
The second section is titled the Armour series. The muscular male busts are intended to evoke and draw upon the depiction of masculinity. For much of history, muscles have been seen as vulgar, meaty indicators of labor and in some instances virility. Khanjan adds another layer of humor and irony to his sculptural work for they are placed a pedestal that has a cow bell hidden under the torso, which could be rung by pulling the thread which the viewer can engage with. Underneath this playful veneer is a serious critique of various manifestations of masculinity.
The third segment of the exhibition looks at the Samurai culture built around the ethos of heroism, sacrifice, revenge and a glorification of violence that is strangely based in love: The love for one's country one's clan, the love for the master or teacher and one's beloved. It talks about this idea of Bushido or the way of the warrior, whose central tenets are honour and freedom from fear of death. His work examines the folly behind heroism, the gloom around the glory, and patriarchal machismo that focuses on the idea of revenge, suicide and violence through Chushingura, a 15th century Japanese Fable.
Georgina Maddox
(Thursday, July 8 - Sunday, August 8)
Gaze, Reflect & Gather
It has been a year filled with a plethora of emotions, both definable and indefinable. It is perhaps the closest we have collectively come to the feeling of complete surrender. In many ways, this surrender to our emotions in an increasingly absurdist world is similar to the surrender one experiences when engaging with Abstract Art. It pulls you into its calm and chaos: pushing you to gaze deeper, to reflect on your interpretations and to gather the resultant reactions.
Art is a lot like life, tumultuous yet inspiring. This year has proven that, contrary to what we perceived abstraction may be the closest we can come to reality. Because with uncertainty comes a different kind of clarity. And in that clarity we can find freedom. Therefore, this show is a tribute to being. Being contemplative, being one’s unpredictable, untamable self, and most importantly, being present.
So let us gaze, reflect and gather.
Leave be the notions of predicting,
Does it matter what is depicted?
When you are a mere bystander.
Experience, emote and evoke.
Imprint your thoughts upon the thought.
There is nothing to control,
You are an embodiment of what you fought.
Creativity keeps us content,
Finding solidarity in its intent,
An art-filled life,
But your life is also Art,
So let us gaze, reflect and gather.
Leave be the notions of prediction,
Does it matter what is depicted?
When it is all just an experience.
Sanjana Shah
(Friday, March 5 - Friday, April 30)
The Tangible Imaginative
True to its historically experimental nature, art cannot be confined to any particular platform or medium. It is both tangible and intangible, allowing the viewer to physically experience and mentally feel. To understand the art, one must understand its essence, by interacting with every aspect of it minutely. One must be absorbed by it, moving around it, and, most importantly, exchanging with it: an exchange of perspectives, truths, emotions, and energies. Every artwork is imprinted upon twice, once by the hands of its maker, and the second time by the senses of its observer.
The marks, strokes, textures and layers mirror our own multi-faceted nature of being. Therefore the personal experience of art is incomparable and completes this necessary process of connection. Each artwork is made to trigger the surreal imagination with its very real and tangible presence. Each artwork is made to move you.
So please join us to celebrate art and its irreplaceable value in our lives especially in times like today! It is, after all, our creativity that keeps us sane in the physical reality we find ourselves in right now.
Sanjana Shah
(Thursday, January 14 - Sunday, January 31)
