Katyayini Gargi’s work, The Reiterators (2015) is a study on the absurdity of everyday life. It looks at the human condition as a self-absorbed spectacle unfolding in the privacy of our own ‘secure’ living quarters, repeating itself endlessly for the comfort of familiarity and to the tune of the destinies that we have cornered ourselves into. Each scenario looping endlessly in the cubicles representing the structure of an apartment complex is filled with pathos and irony as we charge forward, short-sighted, caught up in the aspirations and anxieties that our own lives can afford, deprived of the larger perspective. In these times, as most of us are similarly consumed by the rigors of an essential existence, this work allows us a larger perspective on collective similarity within the theatre of life unfolding unbeknownst to us, and the communities that have already formed around us, even as the characters in the work never will.
Enquire <
Afrah Shafiq’s now-where (2020) is a special digital iteration of her earlier work st.itch (2018) retrofitted to talk about the shared experience of domesticity during the near-world-wide current lockdown. st.itch is a research-based speculative reading of history that explores sewing as a popular engagement for women across class in the domestic space and its connections to code, computing, pixel graphics and cybernetics. As domesticity takes a more prominent place for those of us who are lucky to have a safe space we can call our own, several of us are struggling with everyday household tasks that we once regarded as unskilled or easy, while others are discovering through it newer dimensions for themselves. now-where is an interactive digital work that offers different ways to think about the domestic space and its labour.
Scan the QR codes embedded in the work to watch a film, read a story/essay/poem/comic, listen to music, play a video game, look at art and allow the mind to travel while the body is confined.
Anoli Perera’s Witness (2017) maintains that inside high-walled and high-raised perimeters, we witness the world immersed in a virtual bubble made possible by the Internet and satellite TVs. Until perhaps recently, our already alienated existence relied heavily on closed-circuit cameras for assurance of safety,as we inhabitinsular and perceivably cleansed ‘interiors.’ Within these safe confines, we passively consume a mediated world that we claim to have little control of. We watch in paralysis as histories are uprooted, mythology industrially manufactured, and humanity suspected. In this light-veined take on such singularity, based on actual surveillance footage, the subjects ironically watch their own houses being robbed with the same distance, as if it were a spectacle. As we are confronted by the ongoing threat of COVID-19 within those same walls, this time without appropriate measures of surveillance for an assailant that can’t be caught on video, this work reminds us that it is the alienation of capital that renders us more vulnerable and perhaps there is away other than paranoia and suspicion of ‘the other’.
Enquire <
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Chandan Gomes’s On Earth We are Briefly Gorgeous is a recent edit of a series of photographs that do not contribute to a specific project or a body of work but are of everyday encounters by the artist, that recall Kobayashi Issa’s haiku:
In this world
We walk on the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers
Emerging from life itself, these photographs are a reflection on the last few years of the artist’s life during which he dealt with subjects of violence, mental illness, memory loss and dementia, amongst other things. This work proposes engaged witnessing, and active contemplation of our own beauty, vulnerability, transience and mortality, for the ways they are mirrored around us, especially in this catastrophic moment of widespread illness without cure, that has deflated human exceptionalism.
Sharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < BackSharbendu De’s An Elegy for Ecology (2016-ongoing) narrates a tale of the loss of habitat, human survival and the loneliness of humans in a fictional future of post-climate-crisis dystopia. The mise-en-scènes that the artist has staged depict a world where temperatures have shot abnormally and oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere has depleted to unsustainable levels leading to accelerated extinction of floral and faunal species. Trees and animals—prized commodities in De’s world—have entered private spaces. Clean oxygen has become scarce and entered the realm of commodity. In a moment where we are hyper-aware of our dependency on each other, the value of services that we take for granted, and climate change has slowed down due to a narrowing down of what was regarded ‘essential’ infrastructure to focus on sustenance, this ongoing body of work contemplates a possible future that we are heading towards.
Enquire < Back
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Omer Wasim and Saira Sheikh’s series of works on view are both situated in a speculative future that is visiting the material archives of our times, comprehending civilizational err through remaining traces. Studies for a failed monument functions as evidence; a planned monument that would have been an “epitome of [our] misplaced desires”, which in its failure to materialize reveals the failure of institutionalized structures of hegemony, labour, and entropy that informed its ambitions. The precursor to this body of work, a series of works from 24.8615° N 067.0099° E, which have been reconfigured for digital dissemination here, uncovers data that reveals displacement of mangrove forests that supported unique eco-systems for the construction of urban residential enclaves, following the logic of non-inclusive nationalisms. Also noted in this study are socio-economic disparities evident in the separation of elite living quarters or “palaces” from precarious structures occupied by the “sub-species” guarding the former. The same dichotomies implode before us now, as we are confronted with the divisions we have created in our own social fabric, rendering some lives more precarious than others, which in turn palpably compounds our own susceptibility.
Download artists’ text below that reveals the details of these studies.
Download artists' text
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Anupam Roy’s series Precarious-Collage (2020) presented here explores the nature of history as one that calls for repeated revisions and rewriting, never to attain comprehensiveness. The images here are compositions constructed of screenshots from cinema that represents marginalized subject positions, dating back to the First World War onwards. The juxtaposition of two images only represents dialectic; in them emerge the impossibility of representation, and the recognition of identity as a process that is always in a state of becoming. Identity is treated as a non-category, a flux, consequently negating subjugation on its basis. The body of work provides narratives of socio-economic precariousness, race, caste and the labour class, by remaining critical of representations that even if only subtly, reinforces oppression or romanticizes it. As we consider the plight of those most vulnerable now, this work reminds us to find redemptive forms of doing so.
The artist encourages his audience here to download the work from the link below, and collaborate in the process of (re)writing histories and (non)identity construction.
Download Image
Gautam Kansara’s More Past The Better (2020) is a continuation of the interest that his practice has maintained with news cycles—rapid production and consumption; rise and fall of interest in specific stories;their fragility and legacy in memory—specifically from The New York Times since 2014. His meticulous archive of ‘important’ headlines over the years reveal geo-political bias and subjective positions of the editorial board of this largely respected publication, not unlike any other newspaper anywhere else in the world. This work consists of screen grabs he made of headlines from January to March 2020. As the anxiety that colours this moment in time heightens our obsession with the news, Kansara is concerned with the limits of being informed, and the limits of absorbing that information as the constant flow scrambles our perception. As the video-work progresses, we are able to notice biases towards certain demographics and geo-political configurations, and the black out of almost any other news that would have received prominence in different times. As publications cater to paranoid readers, to what extent do resulting lapses in coverage translate to political (dis)advantage?
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <
Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <
Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Bhagwati Prasad’s series of works, Begumpura/Topologies (2018) and Begumpura/Ecologies (2020) are both inspired by 15th century mystic Saint Ravidas’s poetry on Begumpura, a fictional place without sorrow that is perhaps the earliest imagination of an egalitarian utopia. Prasad imagines the poet with a rampi (leather cutting tool), creating from the leather in his hand a vibrant city built on equality, whose inhabitants can attain their highest aspirations and prosperity without hierarchies or surveillance of identity. The taut form of animal skin produces vibrations that can ripple across oceans, forests, animals, cities, humans and their tools, through complex formations, opening up new paths. In Begumpura/Ecologies, Prasad considers the possibility of such a world at the confluence of a million ecologies in which coalesce organic, inorganic, chemical, biological and technological agents. The act of cooking is synonymous with genesis, a metamorphosis of the world around us, through fables, stories and recipes that can alchemize a new beginning.
Enquire <Samanta Batra Mehta’s Continuum (2013) was conceptualized to represent the cyclicality of life, and the vicissitudes of human existence. The artist’s interest in philosophy and spiritual literature informs this work which imagines a world where we are all interconnected to each other and with all life born of the earth. The relationship endures in creation despite differing attachments to home, territory, community and nationality, and also destruction unleashed by pursuits of power, hegemony, and desire. Processes of ‘othering’ that are structurally embedded, are ways of alienating parts of the self. The work urges us to remain cognizant of the reality that we are all in this together, and both radical compassion and violence affects us collectively.
Enquire <