Delhi, a city with a glorious legacy, has often been romanticised through art. However, the current situation is far from being idyllic. Artist Ankur Ahuja takes a cue from the Delhi she witnesses every day to create digital portraits. “It is not that I don’t love Delhi. I have a certain love-hate relationship with it. I feel everyone has a similar feeling towards it with the scenes they see and the people they interact with,” shares the Chittaranjan Park-based cinematographer and illustrator.
A series of her portraits are currently on display at the Annexe Art Gallery, India International Centre, Lodhi Estate. Titled ‘Spot Stalk Spy Snoop: Delhi’, the exhibition—it previewed on Tuesday and will continue till April 26—is a silent commentary on Delhiites and their day-to-day activities.
Giving us an insight into why she named the exhibition so, Ahuja quips, “You can say it is a light-hearted exaggeration of my process. The ironies of people’s personalities attract my attention. However, if someone would watch me watch them, they might call that snooping or stalking.”
Shades of personalities
The portraits by Ahuja are often a product of her imagination of the people that she witnesses on Delhi’s streets. Be it a lady who uses her sari as a veil or boys clicking selfies in a park—Ahuja responds to these sights through art, with a hint of sarcasm to it. We met David Puig from West Delhi at the preview, who mentioned how he liked that Ahuja isolates different characters that one witnesses on a daily basis. Directing our attention to an untitled illustration of different women that one may have seen in the streets of Delhi, he added, “What I like is that she is only documenting. She is not judging anyone.”
If you notice the portraits on display here carefully, you will see that Ahuja defines the eyes of her subjects with a sneaky playfulness, almost as if they have secrets to divulge. Ahuja says, “I think Indians have expressive faces even when they are by themselves and the best part is you can interpret these expressions in any way.”
With each illustration portraying different people, the exhibition is nothing short of a social commentary.
In fact, in order to showcase Delhi as a melting pot of myriad cultures, Ahuja has added the location in each portrait to apprise the viewer of where she witnessed her subjects. “People from different parts of the world come to Delhi. My illustrations are an exploration of Delhi as a whole; the different places and its unique people,” she concludes.
CHECK IT OUT
WHAT: ‘Spot Stalk Spy Snoop: Delhi’, a solo exhibition by Ankur Ahuja
WHEN: Till April 26, 11:00am-7:00pm
WHERE: Annexe Art Gallery, India International Centre, Lodhi Estate