Migration and displacement define our times and often find expression in contemporary art. As migrants travel from border to border seeking a home, the art follows in their footsteps laying bare the pain of uprootedness and the fear of uncertainty. Delhi’s Art Alive Gallery with its show, You Will Know Me: Migration Stories, curated by Tara Sabharwal, puts forward these images using various medium. The exhibition has artists from the US, Germany and India.
The curator says, “The artists in this show live within communities as natural outsiders. By embracing uncertainty, we can not only channel the hope and hopelessness of our time. The works can also take us to a hidden, deeper certainty, something that connects and brings us together. Through this effort, we want to ask: Can our work, in these uncertain times, open a space for dialogue?”
Sabharwal had initiated the show with an artist group in response to the 2016 US elections that gave the world Donald Trump and brought about a new meaning to the word—migrant. The chosen artists, coming from several countries, share a cultural in-betweenness. They agreed to bring forth a relevant dialogue that was urgent to our times. The group has had six shows in Germany and America, and is booked for six more in North, Central and South America in 2020. The artistic community has always been known for being a mirror to society. The works at the exhibition only stress this.
There is German nomadic sculptor Roger Rigorth’s installation of thin, fragile oars; Barbara Beisinghoff’s artist books on the poetry of Jewish poet and holocaust victim Gertrude Kolmar; Sabine Stange’s photographs on perceptual transience; American Tana Kellner’s monoprints on the US Bill of Rights and immigration; Karen Goldner’s film on US border crossings; Chakaia Booker’s prints referencing African American displacement and transformative power of improvisation; Ayisha Abraham’s film on the life of a Nepali migrant living in Bengaluru; Veer Munshi’s installation on his return to his exiled home in Kashmir, and more.
On the exhibition, Sunaina Anand, Director, Art Alive Gallery, says, “Sabharwal’s work has been increasingly becoming about migration. Over the last few years, she has worked with artists of different nationalities. This has led to an urgent dialogue on the subject.” The project was two years into making. “For us, the show has grown as the migration crisis has intensified. I wanted to draw attention to the issue.”