Tarq Mumbai : Inherited Memory

Inherited Memory

June 5th 2020 - June 26th 2020

Sarah Naqvi, Shrine of Memories, 2018, Embroidered sculptures, Metal mesh and embroidery thread

About the Exhibition

With a series each by the artists, Garima Gupta, Rithika Merchant, Sarah Naqvi and SaubiyaChasmawala, ‘Inherited Memory’ continues to attempt to yield inspiration, contextualize and make sense of the current scenario as we begin to rebuild a new normal. We look closely at the idea of bearing witness, with every artist recording and trying to cope with a different memory.

This exhibition comes together after pondering the environmental effects of a world-wide quarantine in ‘Resurgence’ and reminiscing our lives before lockdown in ‘Navigating Geometries’. The team at TARQ, along with our artists, continues to look further within ourselves through this next exhibition ‘Inherited Memory’. 

As we begin to try and heal and repair from this pandemic, the initial sense of panic  and anxiety has faded. The existential doubt rises up and we wonder about our basic survival going forward. This urges us to dig into the archives of our memory, in an attempt to pierce through these inarticulate and intangible emotions; emerging resilient and ready to conquer the trauma of the past, and enter into a new reality. This collection of artworks are expressions of freedom, of memory, of nature and of space. 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a lecture series conducted by Dr.Kaiwan Mehta, a stimulating discussion between our artists and artist talk-throughs, all conducted online, in our continued attempt to recreate some of the physical programming that we are all missing out on at the moment. Details of these will be available on our social media pages through the duration of the exhibition.

About the Artists

As an artist and researcher, Garima Gupta’sfield of interest and study stretches from ornithology, topographical alterations and nuances of behaviour patterns between man and wild, primarily in the Southeast Asian archipelago. Through her intriguing drawings and documentaries, Garima traces patterns of destruction from different historical periods, ruminating on the connection between imperialist iconographies concerning wildlife and its mirror images lurking in the psyche of the modern-day East. Her ongoing work focuses on environmental catastrophe and wildlife loss through her in-depth research on wildlife hunters in the New Guinea rainforests, wildlife bazaars in parts of Indonesian islands and taxidermy related trade in Thailand. 

With nature playing an important role and an emphasized use of organic shapes and colours, Rithika Merchantworks explore myths across geography. She creates mosaics of myths that question received histories that are available to us throughout culture. Her paintings are made using a combination of watercolour, gouache, ink and collage elements, drawing on 17th-century botanical drawings and folk art, to create a body of work that is visually linked to our collective pasts.

Inspired by female- driven narratives, Sarah Naqviengages in conversations themed around religious and societal stigmas. Using textiles and embroidery as the primary mediums in her practice, this young visual artist uses the cathartic nature of its process to address relevant issues of marginalization. According to Sarah, “Witnessing violence through images of brutality and loss in daily newspapers has been an extent of our privileges. These become visuals we encounter on a day to day basis. In time, we grow accustomed to it, desensitised, depersonalised.” It is these objects that she represents here, her threadwork marking, deliberately the passage of time, and the events that are now too familiar.

Since her graduation from MSU Baroda in 2015, SaubiyaChasmawalasees her work as a means to reflect on everything that has played a significant role in shaping the way she perceives the world. Art making for her is about confronting her fears and getting over them. It is about transformation and regeneration. She works primarily on paper and uses various symbols, gestures and images as a starting point of interaction with the surface. Her process is intuitive and introspective. It allows her to discover a deeper understanding of herself and her experiences. From her 2017 series, “A Pilgrimage of Historical Oversights”, Saubiya has worked over photographs from her family archive of her visits to many places of pilgrimage. She has painted over them to depict her versions of what the photographs represented in order to reflect on the spaces and stories of her childhood.

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