Wandering Violin Mantis | Nibha Sikander

About the Exhibition

The team at TARQ is delighted to present Wandering Violin Mantis– Nibha Sikander’s first solo exhibition. In this exhibition, Sikander expands on her growing practice of looking at and recreating various species from nature, some real and some imagined. The artist uses layer upon layer of intricately cut out paper to create form after form of moths, mantises and birds, each one meticulously assembled in her studio in Murud-Janjira.

This exhibition focuses on Sikander’s observations of a variety of insects and other creatures that surround her. Fascinated by nature since childhood, and more particularly since moving to her current home, the artist began experimenting with making birds in her medium of choice – paper. The paper, according to her, mimics nature in its versatility – soft, stiff, malleable and flexible, almost like wings, feathers and antennae. In some of her works, Sikander delves deeper into her engagement with her subjects, deconstructing, and even abstracting the individual elements of the bird or insect that she is recording.

In his catalogue essay, Ranjit Hoskote says of Nibha’s work “Wrought with unerring accuracy, and with a heightened attentiveness to delicate and often elusive detail, Sikander’s moths and birds testify to the dazzling enchantment of the natural world as well as to the magic of taxonomical science. Presented in segments, as a row of disjecta membra laid out from wing to beak and head, her birds make a graphic transition from field guide to portrait gallery. They come across, not primarily as representatives of a species, but as sharply individual denizens of a world menaced by predators, surly winds, changing weather patterns.”

About the Artist

Nibha Sikander (b.1983) has done her Bachelors in Visual Arts (2006) and Masters in Visual Arts (2008), both specialising in painting, from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara. Since her graduation, she has been part of several group exhibitions, some of which include ALCHEMY: Explorations in Indigo, KasturbhaiLalbhai Museum, Ahmedabad (2019); Beyond Borders, curated by the CONA Foundation at the Whitworth Gallery/Museum, Manchester, England (2017-18); A New Space, Nazar Art Gallery, Vadodara (2016); Back to College, VADFEST, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara (2015); A Construal of Mourning and Rage, Emami Chisel Art, Kolkata (2014); Group show at Studio X, as part of the Paradise Lodge International Artist Residency, Mumbai (2013); Beauty and the Beast, Matthieu Foss Gallery, curated by Anne Maniglier, Mumbai, (2011); Show Girls!, Strand Art Room Gallery, curated by Anne Maniglier, Mumbai (2009); From our Cabinets to the Museum, Open Eyed Dreams Gallery, curated by Aparna Roy, Kochi (2009); and Class of 2008, Art Konsult Gallery, curated by Bhavna Khakkar, New Delhi, (2008-09)

She has taken part in residencies like Paradise Lodge International Artist Residency, Lonavala, Mumbai (November 2013); Sandarbh International Artists Residency Programme, Jaipur (November 2012); and Residency at the American School of Bombay, Mumbai (March - May 2010)

She is the recipient of the Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, 2004-2005. Nibha currently works and lives in Murud-Janjira and Mumbai

Preview: Thursday, 28^th November 2019 | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

11:00 am – 6:30 pm | Tuesday – Saturday | Closed on Public Holidays

For Images and Further Enquiries Contact Vanessa Vaz: press@tarq.in or +91 22 6615 0424

Address: F35/36 Dhanraj Mahal, C.S.M. Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001

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Altruism of Lines Solo by Yashwant Deshmukh ,Curated by Prabhakar Kamble

Altruism of Lines 

Solo by Yashwant Deshmukh

Curated by Prabhakar Kamble

Yashwant Deshmukh is a contemporary conceptual artist, born in 1963,  growing up in Akola, Vidarbha, in the scorching interiors of Maharashtra. He graduated with a BFA from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1988 . In this exhibition he presents works from 2007 to 2019. It’s his short journey with his works. In the span of his career of thirty years Yashwant made various crossings between figuration and symbolic abstraction. He accentuates the lyrical and meditative elements of the object, and preserves the resonance in a monochromatic painterly treatment. He brings it with his personified ways that demonstrate his bounteous visualitics that proves it’s crest of minimalism. In fact it is a maximization of minimalism. Minimization is not to be the least nor is it for the emptiness, moreover it is an actuality and vitality. How would he forget the ascendancy of his village life, the experiences that left a deep imprint on his mind whilst building his life . Vidarbha is an extremely hot region with low rainfall. Until the age of twenty a boy who had never left his village and seen the outer world and thus never obliterated his deep interest in his in village life in later life and art. His expression is as clear and as simple as he lives and it exists with its individual and an exclusive identity.

Artist Yashwant Deshmukh

The extensive moorland under the scorching hot sun that is dilated straight to the horizon, in between is the sporadic appearance of the Acacia and Neem trees that breaks the horizon; the houses arise from the land itself and stand as the globe becomes the textured walls of the vista. There is a special kind of extinction throughout the scorching afternoon in the field, it is a different kind of quiescence. Sometime it is secluded from people. Habitations of small houses, sparse trees, deep arid bottoms of the well, when you peek into such deep wells you can experience a particular kind of eerie darkness, and silence in it sometimes it is haunted too. In this scenario underneath the roof of the immense blue sky and the desert gives you the realisation of your insignificance. This realisation calms you and it can push you to explore and discover yourself. What could be the end of life? The death? What would be the situation after death? Is it the same calmness and peace that will be there after death? It is the same voluminous vacuity? These experiences and consciousness of dialogue within ones self makes a balance between sphere of consciousness and context of visual expressions. His direct and indirect living within this realm endears in his art.

The works that you are seeing in this exhibition are not a straight trajectory of practice as you may perceive them to be, Yashwant made many crossings to reach here, after graduating from Sir J.J. School of Art he was experimenting with many art forms also he had a great influence of typical style of JJ's schooling, that he later refused to pursue . Initially he had done experimentation with all the forms including figurative, abstraction, still life, portraits. The change and the search within is the identity of a rational and logical mind. This logic is the beginning of wisdom. While walking to this path of wisdom and in search of self he turns to recall his roots where he spent memorable life moments at his village where he gets his source of fascination. It carries ingrained associations, for him, such as the hayrick, anthill and the grain store. He has done a solo show on the subject of the grain store. One can imagine how quotidian objects can play the impactful and important role in his practice and in discourse after seeing Yashwant’s work. The experience from the terrace in the dark night, the moonlight lightens the trees and the small houses; only the brighter edges are visible in the dark; it is the combination of line space and form in the atmosphere. Such frames live in depth of his mind. In daily life somebody feels the subject, somebody finds the content but Yashwant gets forms and those forms are enough to become a painting. Usual  common objects come in his art and it become uncommon and spectacular. Kites, human figures, pot, cycle, instruments, houses and many objects are the elements of his work. His work is born through his way of his seeing and experiencing the objects and surroundings. It matters, because I can see such things everyday, though I can not experience them like him. His observation and understanding is specific towards it so he sees it particularly.

Curated by Prabhakar Kamble

Yashwant never needs anything else to represent his objects other than the line, and limited simple colours, it is fulfilled by it only. He doesn’t rely on any other support for it. his visual patterns are very simple but exclusive and significance sensitization of his feelings. Only a form/ object can be the effective subject of painting for him. A rhythm of line, a construction and deconstruction of form, a single colour are enough as elements to construct a strong visual image. The object, form or a line this is the only content and context of his work. How it seems to him is more important, the feeling, emotions within it are important, and this feeling keeps exclusiveness in his art. He denies all the natural sources and effects on the elements like light, shadow, its volume, velocity; he wipes it out, nurtures it in his own way and simultaneously he brings the new image within it. At the same time he breaks the regular image while upgrading the same with a new form which is a key factor of his expression. The original form lifts slightly from the surface and separates it from the background with simple line-plays becoming the mysterious magic of wealthier visuals as a painting. These outer lines and forms, invisible movements of the plains slowly led me to discover varied forms within hidden spaces. The interrelation between form and space kept on adding new dimensions to his paintings.

Prabhakar Kamble 

Mumbai

14 November 2019

NGMA MUMBAI

National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai

National Gallery of Modern Art

Sir Cowasji Jehangir Public Hall

M. G Road, Fort Mumbai - 400032

HUMAN -Daily living conditions - Events / Struggles of human beings / human's encroachment on nature...

George Orwell, the eminent author, said that true politics lies in the statement which differentiates between art and politics'. However, the development of art is a political and social situation embedded in a particular time. Man has assumed that he is different and superior and that his brain is more powerful than other animals. Also, industrial revolution and modernity have apparently brought humankind to the center of the creation.

In the last few decades, the process of globalization has only added to this. The immense advancement in information technology has led to the fragmentation of human persona. The uproar in the community has increased; competitive jealousy has led to increments in violence. Gradually, the man has become more self-centred.

Today's man competes, fights, quarrels, and even ends up on occasion in a race for the maximum benefit of himself. In these trying times, the culture of the civilization stands the risk of annihilation and the human being is turning into a mere animal. 

Considering different aspects of this animal, the inhuman culture of today's modern-day man and the nurturing spirit of him are on the rise. All of this is affecting the life of the human, and it is certain that the result will be the loss of a human being. Many forms of violence stand before us in view of the events that take place in our society.  As a society we are becoming more and more violent.

Artist : Vikrant Bhise 

My pictures is my response to this increasing violence. Daily living conditions - Events / Struggles of human beings / human's  encroachment on nature / Untouchability and various forms of untouchability  in the ongoing society - racism / sexual harassment on women  /  questions of LGBTQ  / farmers suicides/ questions of marginal communities and  migrants, poverty all these various issues in our society and the human who is at the centre of it constantly upsets me. The rapidly changing society and the changing forms of violence make me uncomfortable. It disturbs the artists inside me. A painter always speaks about his times through his paintings. Through this series I have attempted to discover forms of violence and evolution of today’s Human.  the image of today’s Human and his evolution.

Vikrant Bhise

Solo show 

12-18th Jehangir Art Gallery

PIN POSTER : Jehangir Art Gallery.

Jehangir Art Gallery is an art gallery in Mumbai. It was founded by Sir Cowasji Jehangir at the urging of K. K. Hebbar and Homi Bhabha. It was built in 1952. Managed by the Committee of Management, the entire cost of this mansion was donated by Cowasji Jehangir.

PIN POSTER : Jehangir Art Gallery.

Anil naik is an alumnus of Sir j.j. School of art, wherein he stood first class first in Maharashtra state and was awarded the gold medal in 1981. He was awarded the fellowship in j.j.school of art.

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NIPPON SOLO SHOW- BY Vrushali Joshi 2019

Some non-leaving objects from everyday life tend to become a fragment of my life. Each of these objects is wrapped in either memories or stories. They add minute and important concepts in my life directly and indirectly. These objects become alive and accompany to me at different point in time with their contexts.

 I bring them on paper using water colors. The fact that, ‘water is essential compound for all the range of organisms’ make me feel captivated by water colors. My attempt to render life to non-living objects is through the medium of watercolors to breathe life into these inanimate objects, just as 'water' is essential for the survival of all the lives great and small on the planet Earth.

Recent work by Vrushali Joshi




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NGMA - MUMBAI

Director General’s Note We are honoured to host Santati, an exposition that is a tribute to 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi, through art. Santati aims to interpret Gandhi’s ideas through minds engaged in design, art, architecture, textiles and literature. Through their works, they seek to keep alive and spread the great visionary’s timeless ideas of one love, one truth, one world. In this first of its kind coming together, Santati sends out a pertinent message to a world seeking answers for its dilapidating environment and crumbling systems.

 The participants intend to amalgamate the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi with weaving, architecture, canvases and installations to portray its progressive and malleable nature. Their works delve into a mind that has inspired minds across the world for generations. I would like to congratulate Ms.Lavina Baldota, Director, AbherajBaldota Foundation, for collaboratingwith the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai to put up a stupendous exhibition on such a momentous occasion.

I also take this opportunity to thank all the individuals and institutions that have come together to pay a fitting tribute to Gandhiji. May I also mention here that the NGMA has put up masterpieces from its enviable collection to commemorate the occasion.

I would also wish to specially thank Shri Kishore Jhunjhunwala – a collector of Gandhi memorabilia, numismatist and a philatelist par excellence – for loaning his priceless Gandhian collection for this exhibition. I would also like to appreciate the sincere efforts of Shri Vilas Shinde, Chairperson, Advisory Committee of NGMA, Mumbai,

Professor Vishwanath D. Sable, Dean, Sir J. J. School of Art, Mumbai and Ms.Anita Rupavataram, Director, NGMA, Mumbai and the entire NGMA team for their tireless efforts and perseverance, without which this exhitbition would not have been possible. I wish this exhibition all the success. Adwaita Charan Garanayak Director General National Gallery of Modern Art

Batin | Solo Exhibition by Saubiya Chasmawala

About the Exhibition

We are delighted to present Batin – Saubiya Chasmawala’s second solo exhibition in Mumbai, and her first at TARQ, following her 2017 show Pilgrimage of Historical Oversights at Clark House. In this exhibition, Chasmawala works to further develop her engagement with Arabic script, pushing the boundaries of abstraction. In her paintings of ink and natural dyes, Chasmawala layers characters to obscure the rigidity of their form, moving away further away from her older, representational works.

Bātin literally means "inner" and in this context, is connected deeply to the artist’s relationship to her practice. Her newest works are born out of a desire to demystify, to unveil, and are the results of an intuitive, introspective, almost meditative mark making process. The artwork is undoubtedly and almost inextricably tied to Chasmawala’s sense of self, history, and identity and their creation is a therapeutic, almost cathartic process for her, and an opportunity to move away from a sense of conflict and duality.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring an essay by Skye Arundhati Thomas, which delves into Chasmawala’s unique approach to abstraction, form and texture.

About the Artist

Saubiya Chasmawala (b.1990) received her Masters in Visual Arts from Vadodara’s Maharaja Sayajirao University, Fine Arts, specialising in painting (2015). She interned under the paper-artist Anupam Chakraborty in hand paper-making at the Nirupama Akademi, Kolkata.

In September 2017, Saubiya had her first solo exhibition, Pilgrimage of Historical Oversights, at Clark House initiative in Mumbai. She has been a part of various group shows including Words of Her Seeing, Conflictorium, Museum of Conflict, Ahmedabad (2019); In letter and spirit, TARQ, Mumbai (July 2016); Unwinding,  Nazar Art Gallery, Vadodara, India (November 2016); Reading Room, a travelling exhibition curated by Amit Jain, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, United Kingdom (October 2015) and New York (September – October 2016) and Emerging Palettes, an exhibition of paintings, Srishti Art Gallery, Hyderabad (August 2015). Her work was also exhibited at the India Art Fair, represented by TARQ (2018), and CIMA award show (February 2017).

Recently, Saubiya was part of the Artist’s Program at The Space Studio, Baroda (February-April, 2019). She has been an artist-in-residence at the Blueprint12 Studio, Vadodara (July-a TIFA working studios in February 2017.

She is a recipient of the prestigious Nasreen Mohamedi Scholarship Award (2011-12) and Inlaks Fine Art Award (2016). She currently practices her art in Vadodara at her personal studio. 

Preview: Thursday, 17^th  October  2019 | 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

11:00 am – 6:30 pm | Tuesday – Saturday | Closed on Public Holidays

Ananyaa  Menon: press@tarq.in or +91 22 6615 0424

Invitation for a panel discussion "DANCE and the CITY " on 16th October, 2019 at NGMA, Mumbai.

 NGMA, Mumbai.

"पारा"यण - राहुल धोंडीराम थोरात

प्रतिभावंत भारतीय चित्रकार श्री. राजेंद्र पाटील "पारा" यांचे एकल प्रदर्शन सोलो शो- 'इनबिटविन होप अँड फीअर' सध्या जहांगीर आर्ट गॅलरीत आयोजित करण्यात आले आहे। 8 ते 14 ऑक्टोबर 2019 पर्यंत हे प्रदर्शन कला रसिकांसाठी आणि सामान्य जनतेसाठी खुले आहे। आवर्जून पहावे असे हे प्रदर्शन आहे। तेव्हा अवश्य एकदा....

माणूस हा समाजशील प्राणी आहे असं अरिसटोटल Aristotle म्हणतो। पण तो समाजशील होण्याची प्रक्रिया ही क्लिष्ट आहे। व्यक्ती, कुटुंब ते समाज अश्या स्तरावर वावरताना त्याला नीतिनियमांचे बंधन असते। समाज हा कळपांचा बनलेला असतो, समूहाचा बनलेला असतो। कळपांचा, समूहाचा त्यांचा स्वतः चा एक स्वतंत्र विचार असतो आणि समविचारी डोकी एकत्र येऊन ग्रुप बनतो। समाज जीवनात राहताना या समूहात, कळपात आचार विचारात घर्षण व्हायला सुरुवात होते। मतभेदांचे रूपांतर हिंसेत होते। यासाठी शस्त्रांच्या निर्मिती ची गरज तयार होते। चढाओढ, स्पर्धा यातून मानवी अस्तित्वालाच धोका तयार होतो। ही प्रक्रिया मानवाच्या अस्तित्वापासून आजपर्यंत चालू आहे आणि एका विशेष महत्वाच्या टप्प्यावर, वळणावर येऊन आपण सर्व पोहोचलो आहोत। जागतिक पातळीवर भीतीचे मळभ अधिक ठळक होत आहे आणि हे सिरियसली विचार करण्याची गरज आहे। हाच धागा चित्रकार राजेंद्र पाटील यांनी तब्बल तीन दशकं समर्थ पणे पकडला आहे। आशा आणि भीती या मानवी आदीम प्रेरणांना, संवेदनशील भावनांना आपल्या कलाकृतींच्या माध्यमातून परिस स्पर्शाचा अनुभव देतानाच विचार ही करायला चित्रकार "पारा" पाटील आपल्याला प्रवृत्त करतात। ही या प्रदर्शनाची जमेची बाजू आहे।

चित्रांचा आणि शिल्पांचा सौदर्यात्मक अनुभव रसिकांना होतो। शस्त्रांचे वेगवेगळे अमूर्त केवल आकार हे चित्रकाराच्या बुद्धीमत्तेची चुणूक दर्शविते। कॅनव्हास ला असलेल्या विशिष्ट पोतामुळे विषय अधिक गहनपणे ठळक होत मनावर ठसतो। रंगछटांचा सुंदर मिलाफ चित्राला विलोभनीय बनवतात। त्रिमित शिल्पातून आणि इन्स्टलेशन मधून रसिक हे विषयाशी पूर्ण पणे समरस होतात। काही चित्र ही डिझिटल माध्यमात आहेत। तंत्रज्ञानातील आधुनिक टूल्सचा प्रभावी अचूक वापर ही "पारा" आपल्या कलाकृतीत करतात हे विशेष।

"पारा" पाटील यांच्या कलाकृतींचे समीक्षण करताना केवळ कलात्मक- सौन्दर्यात्मक बाजूने आपल्याला विचार करता येत नाही। सामाजिक, राजकीय, आर्थिक आणि कला राजकारण या पातळीवरचा त्यांचा संघर्ष ही आपल्याला विचारात घ्यावा लागतो। "पारा" पाटलांच्या एकूण व्यक्तिमत्वाचा आपल्याला विचार करावा लागतो। मूळात "पारा" हे स्वाभिमानी आणि प्रामाणिक कलावंत आहेत। विध्यार्थी दशेतच संपूर्ण महाराष्ट्रात प्रथम क्रमांक मिळवून त्यांनी त्यांची प्रगल्भता आणि सशक्त कलाजाणीव सिद्ध केले आहे। विविध पुरस्कार, मानसन्मान आपल्या प्रतिभेच्या जोरावर मिळवून आजही त्याच दिमाखात त्यांची कला निर्मिती चालू आहे। कुठल्याही राजकीय पक्षाच्या सावलीची त्यांनी कधीच अभिलाषा बाळगली नाही। आणि म्हणूनच त्यांचा हा कलात्मक प्रवास हा संघर्षमय आहे। शुद्ध आहे।

- राहुल धोंडीराम थोरात

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Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai, 

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More fetched towards abstract painting like V S Gaitone, Pual Klee and Nasreen Mohamedi - Heena Waghmare

Heena was born in 1990 Pune, Maharashtra, she has completed her study in BFA Fine Art from Bharati Vidhayapheeth and MFA from SNDT Mumbai university, she is known as Rebel abstract painter 

Artist : Heena Waghmare 

Heena began her career by she being inspired from her family, her family members are signboard painter and most of them work for film set design, she enjoys old calendar design and kept learning from people near her, she knew one painter during her childhood ..M F Hussain.

She belongs to Muslim  family most of time her family stopped her painting. Since childhood MF Hussian has always been her inspiration to go after her dreams. Before Art school she painted ganpati and Mother Merry God at the same time. After a while she got more interested to work in the field of Art and she loved reading books of J Krashanamurti, while reading books she was more fetched towards abstract painting like V S Gaitone, Pual Klee and Nasreen Mohamedi.

Rare Painting by Heena Waghmare

Heena says while working, conscious as well as sub conscious mind both are at work. With all this thinking it is like one is searching own self. From the time she started understanding pictures and paintings, rather than depicting them as they are, she put them on canvas the way she saw it. The way they are to her, the way she understands them. “Paint things that I visualize’’ is her way of art.  

Rare Painting by Heena Waghmare

Henna’s paintings are not just paintings, they are a bridge. Bridge that connects two worlds, one that she carries inside her and that is her conscience in which she always loves to discover a new color and paint with it and the other is her outer world. Bad or good emotions, right or wrong morals and feelings, they all build this bridge up. It goes without saying that when a bridge is built with such strong rudiments, the travel from one world to the other is smoother.

Abstract painting she show lots layers of colour overlapping, mostly she use pastel shades like gay and skin colour with light blue shade

This discovery of her own self is yet not over for her. She still wants to discover herself and get this feelings travel to the outer world to see through the bridge – Heena’s paintings!

- On behalf of Pankaja JK

Art Blogazine 2019

'PRIYA Dube’s poetry and art speaks of her life' - Satarupa Bhattacharya

Art & Deal  Magzine 

New Delhi

Priya Dube (1992) was born to a family belonging to Uttar Pradesh in Sumesherpur. The family shifted to Bombay, where she was raised. Her journey in the field of the arts began at an early age when she began to sketch and draw her immediate surroundings. After she acquired a degree in interior designing, she worked as a designer for five years. Eventually, she found her calling as a fine art practitioner and began her practice from home.

Dube’s poetry and art speaks of her life: a life that she chose to rebel against the institutionalised setups with. Her works speak of her resistance to the inculcated practices of boundaries that has over the years become our identity. In a society of norms that includes language, marital status, class consciousness, and occupational constructs, the very act of making art and writing poetry has become a form of resistance.

Her art speaks a language of the inculcated systems of womanhood, whereby, womanhood is her boundary. This is the boundary she breaks with her installation of clothes lined up against the windowpane, which she calls “Your Thoughts Drying Under the Sun, Night will be Sunshine with Hair”. The installation speaks of how we hang our minds out to dry, while we mull over our situations on an everyday basis.

 The clothes lined up are a regular middle-class household sight, where lining them up is the easiest and fastest way to find them and arrange them. Her installation shows the convenience associated with her daily life, where she finds herself constantly rummaging through her surroundings for details that accentuate her being. Similarly, the self-portrait is an insight to how she looks at herself. A poem that describes her yearning to be one with what she looks at while looking deep within herself is included as the title and a part of the painting. Her words enunciate her desire and longing that she has buried within herself. This journey is not only spiritual but also political, where she discloses her utmost desire to be seen as a capable being and a desirable one at that. The genitals are so regularly decisive of what or who we should become and how prolifically homogenized is that idea that she creates several images of the vagina to dismount from the stationed notions of gender.Here, she includes a poem that describes the mood of the vagina. Thereby, she brings forth the point of consent and the dilemma of gendered desire. Her other works to speak of her daily interactions with her surroundings and with the core of her existence.

“Love Box with Smoking Ideas”, a depiction of several images from her everydays, and “Beautiful Mind”,a combination of several aestheticized pictures of people, are evocative of everything that has visually pleasured and plagued her. Such a range emphasizes her keen ability to look deep within and outside the peripheries of the society she struggles with as a woman and as a metropolitan individual.

All in all, Dube’s works are evocative of our every day, whereby, making it even more plausible for us to see what we don’t want to see. Her works enables us to see which we have seen every day and have functionally desensitised ourselves towards. Her anguish, her love,her desire, and her ability to mull over all that she is or is to become has all been set right in front of our eyes to witness. In doing so, we are not only witnessing her journey but the journey of our collective existence.Therefore, Dube’s works speaks of us all.

  Satarupa Bhattacharya

Nippon Gallery

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers, 
Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai - 400 001/ Tel: 022 66333997
Mumbai, Maharashtra

ART & SOUL : Text Part III: Subaltern Sexuality-Body as Text

 ‘In literary theory, a text is any object that can be “read”, whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block or styles of clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits some kind of informative message […]’ explains Wikipedia.

Recent work by Sudharak Olwe 

In contemporary Indian art we continue to evolve the genre of the human figure or portraiture as representations of our culture and its unspoken dimensions. The photographic portraitures may represent new dimensions of ( trans) sexuality, gender, queer groups or focus the unspoken through the subaltern. My focus is the gaze of the protagonist in the picture should meet the onlooker.     

Every human being experiences a discreet sexuality which is silently there, often in all human actions and expressions. Often these experiences are repressed, except gentle suggestions in human conversations. Sexuality is deeply silenced or means “layers of silencing” in common human experiences. Spaces and right to conversation about one’s sexuality/ sexual identity are few and nil  especially for the subalterns (economically, culturally and socially dispossessed). Consequently, “speech as expressions of sexuality” and ruthless violence are deeply entwined. 

Sexuality forms an important aspect of human identity. The discourse on sexuality breaks on the experiences of the “materiality” of the human body. There is no other consequence that shapes one’s sexuality than the materiality of the human body. How is one to negotiate these transforming inwardly human experiences during childhood-puberty onwards? What is the nature of subaltern sexuality? How does it manifest itself as a poignant reflection of the self for most humans? In “Subaltern Sexuality: Body as Text” one may be able to read the deeply unspoken, through-in the bodies of the protagonists. The incredible voices from within- its manifestation as a poetic content of the world or home (within) plays with inevitable control through punishments and silenced power abuses.

Sudharak Olwe  at Art & Soul Mumbai ( image source sudharak owle fb image) 

Sexuality is a bundle of energy when politicized- gets recognized in the “queer moment/s” that any given social/cultural space creates, making aware of one’s emerging/ transforming sexual identity. Several such moments become really poignant for oneself to observe also the rupture from within. A tearing inner voice acquires within as the gaze returned (looking at the camera lens). Often the bare gaze of the protagonist is layered and poetic with these expressions. The visuals are subtle and strong manifesting the unspoken in their meeting of gaze with the onlooker.   

Shubhalakshmi Shukla

Curator

1, Madhuli, Shiv Sagar Estate, Dr Annie Besant Road, Worli, Mumbai, India
400018 Mumbai, Maharashtra

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PIN POSTER : WORKSHOP at Nippon Gallery l Mumbai

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers, Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai, 400 001, Maharashtra, India.Tel: 022 6633 3997

PIN POSTER : Nippon Gallery l Mumbai

30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers, Nanabhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai, 400 001, Maharashtra, India.Tel: 022 6633 3997