Zara

Hemant Morparia

9 November · 

 

here is my take on tree-killing by zara. share widely for possible effect

Jehangir Art Gallery : 13th Nov 2018

Behold the Honeycomb by Likla Lall

Behold the Honeycomb; Nature’s flawless design. Each hexagon is impeccable in itself, and at the same time, a part of something grander. Look closer and you will see that within each perfect cell there is a unique world buzzing with a life of its own.

Sudhir Patwardhan at Honeycomb group show Jehangir Art Gallery

Here you see Santosh Kalbande at work. He is holding a matchstick; to him this matchstick is the basis of all representation. He plants his matchstick in ply and out blossoms an artistic symbolism of the male and the female. Form and geometric shape are born from this artistic union in a repetition that inspires, in the viewer, a meditative state of mind.

And here sits another Nilesh Shilkar within his honeyed cell, equally obsessed with cells and mutation. Liberated by minimalism, he punctures the paper carefully with Braille-like pinpricks of three-dimensional form, in an exploration of the very evolution of the Universe.

Over here is Vinita Dasgupta, an artist who looks at life like pieces of a puzzle. Each colour, texture and shape takes hold of her imagination. Memory, feelings and impressions come together in careful folds and create layer after layer of untold stories. You may have seen and admired her works over the last six years at the Indian Art Fair in Delhi, but this year she promises something new.

Kumar Ranjan is a man that misses home. He now lives in a city that seems intent on suffocating him. Every now and then, he escapes into the clear blue skies and green jungles of his ancestors. The memory stays with him, and in bold strokes he captures them on jute canvas.

Now consider these two artists, Srabani Sarkar and a Tushar Potdar, each peering closely at the world around them. She watches the socio-economic currents that rush past her, and finds meaning in woodcut, printing powerful and undeniable images. He takes the everyday object and turns them into something extraordinary upon his canvas. And here are two that know the importance of blank spaces. 

Raj Bhandare from Goa

While Raj Bhandare transforms scrap metal into something spiritual in experiments that involve the wilful immersion of beautifully crafted four by four feet metal-works in the ocean for three months, Vishal Pawar proves dexterous with his use of charcoal; but both know the depth that lies between two lines.

And finally, here is Tathi Premchand, the man who brought them all together. His obsession with variation transcended his art and clambered into his role as Artist & curator. He looked at each cell and saw the soul within. He displays a special collection of thirty works created over a period of ten years created more than ten thousand drawings.

Here is Honeycomb, a glimpse into the ever changing retro-scope of the lives of nine artists. Enjoy the art works of Tathi Premchand, Raj Bhandare, Santosh Kalbande, Nilesh Shilkar, Vinita Dasgupta, Srabani Sarkar, Kumar Ranjan, Tushar Potdar and Vishal Pawar as they travel through the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Goa, Ratnagiri and more.

by Likla Lall

Art Writer & Researcher 2018/Mumbai 

HONEYCOMB
MUMBAI +DELHI + KOLKATA + GOA + RATANAGIRI
GROUP SHOW

You are invited for the grand opening of HONYCOMB, A group show by 9 Artists at Jehangir Art Gallery,

Tathi Premchand I Raj Bhandare I Santosh Kalbande I Nilesh Shilkar I Vinita Dasgupta I
Srabani Sarkar I Kumar Ranjan I Tushar Potdar I Vishal Pawar

13th November 2018 : Exhibition open at 4pm on
Exhibition Date : 13th to 19th November 2018 Time: 11am to 7pm

Jehangir Art Gallery Auditorium Hall
161B, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001, India.

PIN POSTER : NEW DELHI

Satarupa bhattacharya

The Looking Glass emphasises on the human conditions of interaction between the self and the desired self - Satarupa Bhattacharya

The Looking Glass is strongly inspired by the famous Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, and, so, the name reflects on the second book, Through the Looking Glass. 

Alice’s journey is a journey of self-reflection where she finds herself immersed in various aesthetic compositions. Every character is a reflection of her inner desires, where she is constantly engaging her audience with her self-awareness. 

The subconscious, conscious, and the projected self are intersecting factors in an individual at every moment of time and to be able to clearly visualise this for an audience is to bring the interaction with the self in the public. So to start with, The Looking Glass emphasises on the human conditions of interaction between the self and the desired self. Here, the notion of human condition is grounded on history, politics, and society as we have witnessed them in our collective journey. Therefore, Varnita Sethi, Mahhima Bhayanna, and Mahmood Ahmad help recreate this essential dialogue with their viewers in this hope that their viewers would engage with the auto-narrative in an urban visual space.

(Mahmood Ahmad  l Mahhima Bhayanna l Varnita Sethi )

The show is being held at a garage space in a residential area in New Delhi with the purpose of looking at the deep recesses of architecture that engulfs our tendencies to travel between time, space, and events. This is further enhanced in the works of Varnita Sethi, who puts herself on her canvas by projecting her desire to self-pleasurise. Sethis’s sexuality reminds us of Alice’s budding desires that she visualises in the Mad Hatter. The Mad Hatter’s inane interactions are emphatic of life and the several sexual self-dialogues convoluted in language and advices to Alice. Sethi’s works gives us a glimpse to her Mad Hatter through bold colours and strong strokes bringing out the woods of her buried desires. Her work comfortably interacts with a larger audience. 

Mahhima Bhayanna takes this self-dialogue to a realm of intricacies as she weaves her miniature and calligraphy techniques to that of the abstract form. Bhayanna’s works bring forth her desire to reflect collectively through her meditative space reminding us of the rabbit running late that led Alice to jump into a hole. This intense desire to collect all pieces of time and purpose is a conscious dialogue in our current moment. It is not of crisis, but of addressing that which we engage with everyday. Bhayanna’s works display her dialogues with her self and her desired self that intends to engage her audience in her delicate and gentle strokes that Alice’s rabbit embodies and, yet, does not. Mahmood Ahmad adds his virile dreams to our narrative’s purpose of directly engaging with our subconscious visual space. He surprises his meditation with his boldness in directly addressing his journey. His charcoal sketches remind us of Alice’s colourful dream in an alternative urban visualised context. In his works, his dreams are lucid and he wants his audience to visit his wonderland. 

All in all, The Looking Glass hopes to engage with all our Alice’s wonderland and, ergo, lends us a mirror to reflect upon. 

Satarupa bhattacharya

Art Writer- New Delhi