To be honest with oneself takes courage but what comes of it, is liberation for a lifetime. In the matrix of secrets and silences, lie confessions.
The adventure is for you to see whether you can recognise these. Veiled within complexity, each work is a maze of ideas. A Language of Form-Stories for Memory and Time invites you to peek inside these reveries.
Curator and art writer Veeranganakumari Solanki has worked closely with Exhibit320’s Director, Rasika Kajaria, and five artists-Shiraz Bayjoo, Gunjan Kumar, Youdhisthir Maharjan, Farah Mulla and Saad Qureshi – to elucidate on the notions of memory and time as interpreted by them.
This is a two-part exhibition, the first of which is ongoing. The second will go up on February 28. “In this display, the artists depend on their experience with time as a reference to conjuring personal stories through form where the artists have revealed an otherwise concealed part of themselves. The starting point for them, and for the viewers, is to ponder over why we think what we think, and how that impacts our understanding of reality,” says Solanki.
In Saad Qureshi’s Along the Red River, you see a deep layering of places with relics and stories of the time. There is fluidity that allows for an unrestricted flow of ideas, unimpeded by inhibitions of any sort. He uses red brick dust, plywood and paints to elaborate this construction that traverses into unknown lands. “The red filter is reminiscent of nostalgia that time poses. Interestingly, when I visited him at his studio in Oxford, England, I saw him working on this piece. He had let cobwebs and dust settle on it to show the organic passage of time and what it does to things. Surprisingly, those cobwebs remained intact even once we got the works to India,” says the curator.
In another work, you see time play a significant role. Weight of Time by artist Gunjan Kumar, a self-taught artist based in Chicago, derives its gravitas from her studies in nature. Exploring dualities of meaning in single forms is at the core of her construction. The work is an abstract impression of an ‘emotional weight.’
For visitors, artist Shiraz Bayjoo will be undertaking an interactive session explaining his choice of material and execution of work, along with Solanki taking questions on the exhibition, on November 29. It’s about making this show accessible and not isolating, says Solanki and that’s why sessions like these are important to break the ice between an artist and his audience. The show is making a larger point that memory and time belong to everyone, and thus the idea is universal. Till:December 30, At: Exhibit320, F-320, Lado Sarai
About the exhibition
The exhibition is a showcase of artworks in various mediums taking a couple of fundamental questions as the starting point. These are why we think what we think, and how that impacts our understanding of reality. The five artists invited to delve into this viewpoint by its curator Veeranganakumari Solanki are Shiraz Bayjoo, Gunjan Kumar, Youdhisthir Maharjan, Farah Mulla, and Saad Qureshi.