We Will See, a two-person exhibition at Experimenter–Colaba, is a nod to poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s poem, Hum Dekhenge. Drawing on its call to witness a certain moment in collective memory, the show brings together a new body of sculptural installations, drawings and paintings by Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah and Vikrant Bhise, who might hail from two distinct political milieus but are united by their effort to frame solidarities between people without shared histories. Pakkiyarajah, who lives and works in Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, looks at the impact of Sri Lanka’s civil war—the ceaseless violence—on both the ecological and human world. Bhise, whose participation in the show is in collaboration with Delhi-based Anant Art Gallery, continues to look at Ambedkarite politics, Dalit histories and people’s movements in resisting caste discrimination.
As Priyanka and Prateek Raja, co-founders and directors, Experimenter, share in an email interview, that though no testimony from the past validates their shared humanity, the coming together of Pakkiyarajah and Bhise’s practices in this exhibition is more about solidarities, “which are built nevertheless and the kinship between them is sustained through individual resistances."
The exhibition is on view till 6 September at Experimenter, Colaba, Mumbai, 10.30 am to 6.30 pm,closed on Sunday and Monday.
In the sculpture series, Axil, industry materials such as resin and steel come together with botanical elements such as floral sprays. This forms a larger body of work through which London-based artist Amba Sayal-Bennett is engaging with imperial gardens and colonial botany. Instead of presenting hyper realistic renditions, her focus is on the process of extraction of plants and labour, transfer of specimens across the globe and erasure of local knowledge. She is exhibiting her work across three sites in Mumbai, London and New York, and the show atTarq, titled Dispersive Acts, is her first solo in India. Here, she has focused on Rani Baug, earlier Victoria Gardens, which were established in the 1860s as a British colonial project. Her unique approach to botanical elements is what makes this exhibition different. “These botanical elements, made through precise machine production, allude to the unnaturalness of gardens as controlled and subjugated nature. In her work, Sayal-Bennett undercuts this notion of control by reappropriating botanical elements, to generate forms that evolve through a process of disordered growth," states the exhibition note.
Dispersive Acts can be viewed at Tarq, Mumbai, from 8 August to 21 September, Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 6.30 pm.
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Paper works have been in focus at art programmes across the country in recent years. Delhi-based Pulp Society—a contemporary art gallery—is taking this forward, albeit in a fun and engaging way. It calls its summer programme, Paper and Play, an exhibition-cum-hangout zone with games, zines, magazines, books, toys—all artistic practices that start with paper. This is an endeavour to bring in different kinds of audiences into an art space, allowing them to engage with book makers and artists, and offering them works at affordable price points. An interesting publication on showcase is Kasauli Art Centre, 1976-1991 by Balwinder Dhanoa, published by Tulika Books, which looks at the history of Ivy Lodge, Kasauli, that was set up as an art residency. Then there is Jyoti Gupta’s Different Differentiator, an art-based racial literacy toolkit that advocates teaching children about skin as early as four years of age.
Paper and Play is being held at Pulp Society, Delhi, till 14 September, Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 6.30 pm.
There is something poetic about the imagery that features in the works of artists Amitava and Mohan Samant. In an interesting showcase, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) is presenting two solos, If We Knew the Point–Amitava and Magic in the Square—Mohan Samant, Centennial Exhibition, which stand as independent exhibitions while also entering into conversation with one another. “Amitava and Samant in different contexts and locations tend to converse around inventing a language of pictorial construction, collaging, armaturing and assemblages, creating extra dimensions through cut-outs, paper shreds and threads, fragments of objects, toys, markings along with color pigment, pencil scribbles, inks and markers," writes Roobina Karode, director and chief curator, KNMA, about the point of convergence of the two practices.
In several Untitled works, the viewer can see how Amitava combines a point or a dot—one of the fundamental units of art making—with objects like price tags, bus tickets, and more, to embark on flights of imagination. An unorthodox approach can be seen in 20 of Samant’s works such as Black Magician as well, in which he pushed the possibilities of materiality. “Apart from regular paint, he started using cement, plastic, sand and thread, eventually layering his pictorial ground with cut-out forms and figurines. He raised these cut-outs from the primary surface, thus giving his paintings a three-dimensional effect," states the exhibition note.
The two exhibitions can be viewed at the KNMA, Saket, Delhi, till 29 September, 10.30 am to 6.30 pm, closed on Monday and all national holidays.
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Three young contemporary artists express the ‘self’ in their latest works, thus enveloping the visitor into an intimate viewing experience. Using a variety of materials and mediums, Al-Qawi Nanavati, Dola Shikder and Purvi Sharma embed a part of their personal histories into the group show, Fragile, as they navigate themes of loss, love and memory. Especially moving are Mumbai-born Nanavati’s works from the Letters to My Mother series, which began when her mother passed away in 2018 and has evolved over time. She includes threads from her mother’s clothes and other material that she left behind not just to keep the memory alive but also as a means of catharsis and healing. Also interesting are Sharma’s works which offer a contrast of sorts—she uses the solidity of terracotta and stoneware sculpture to capture everyday life’s fleeting fragile beauty.
Fragile can be viewed at Latitude 28, Delhi, till 18 August, Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 7 pm.
In an extensive survey of paintings, drawings and prints, an upcoming show at Project 88 recontextualises the practice of artist Sudhir Khastgir. Titled The Rhythms of Refuge, the retrospective curated by art historian R Siva Kumar and conceived in collaboration with Galerie 88, Kolkata, traces the distinct oeuvre of this reclusive artist. Born in Chittagong in 1907, Khastgir was an early student of Nandalal Bose at Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan. The show, however, seeks to look beyond the framework of Bengal and Santiniketan, and highlight the fact that the affinity of an artist like Khastgir to a broader movement didn’t mean that they had no individuality.
It is from this perspective this exhibition becomes significant. “It proposes to relook at Sudhir Khastgir, who was mostly seen as an artist within the framework of Bengal and Santiniketan. A closer look at his works will make evident a complex connection between his personal life experiences, his favoured subjects and their aesthetic framing," states Siva Kumar. “In fact, what looks like a spontaneous celebration of life is a subtle sublimation of experiences and deeper emotions that haunted him. Even with his affiliations to groups or schools, his art was clearly shaped by his subjectivity."
Sudhir Khastgir: The Rhythms of Refuge can be viewed at Project 88, Mumbai, from 8 August to 14 September, 11 am to 7 pm, closed on Sunday and Monday.
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Around 100 maps stand as a testament to not just shifting boundaries but also the alterations in the sociopolitical fabric of the Indian subcontinent over time. The exhibition, titled Cartographical Tales: India Through Maps, features work by prominent cartographers like Suetter, Rennell, Mortier, Lapie, Bonne, and Tallis, between the 17th century to 1946. According to Anubhav Nath, director, Ojas Art, the maps narrate stories that go beyond their demarcations, and help people relate to an era and period better. “One tends to discover something new in the same geography. Every map recounts a story that traces back through history," he states. The display is not chronological and one can see alterations within the same geography across time in maps juxtaposed against one another.
The exhibition can be viewed at Ojas Art, Delhi, till 22 September, 11 am to 7 pm, closed on Monday and national holidays.