In her 2014 work, Disturbed Children — a wall-fastened wire sculpture — historian-turned-artist Anita Dube presents an abstract imagery of people walking. Created as “an embodiment of the injustice against marginalised religions and communities through the displacement of people and destruction of homes,” says Dube, the relevance of the work isn’t lost on the present and the recent past.
While migrants walked to their villages during Covid, Dube also relates the work to the destruction of the homes of people in Gaza and the mass displacement, especially of children, as the Israel-Hamas conflict reaches the nine-month mark.
Another work in the same series is a mixed media piece titled Femme Maison, symbolic of the feminist movement. Dube created the form of a house-woman using the steel wire against a pixelated picture of a container depot that she says ‘represents the chaos of global trade and the relationship between the body and the home.’
Part of a group exhibition titled ‘People, Places, Things’ at Vadehra Gallery , the showcase of about 70 pieces transcends borders and narratives by featuring an eclectic ensemble of 25 artists, both renowned and emerging, modern and contemporary.
There is 87-year-old Gulam Mohammad Sheikh’s famed archival inkjet print and a political statement titled The Speaking Tree – a beautiful Chinar tree that houses small images of saints, people, images from the Gujarat riots, and migrants, as it creates an evocative political statement.
Other artists gracing the walls are MF Hussain, Faiza Butt, Rabir Kaleka, and Rameshwar Broota. The art pieces are as diverse as the artist ensemble with sculptures, paintings, sketches, photographs, and even a movie being showcased.
The exhibition also includes a rare collection of iconic photographs done by MF Husain as part of his ‘Culture of The Streets’ series. The photographs include playful juxtapositions with large glamorous cinematic images forming a backdrop to the frenetic life and crowds of the modern Indian streets. There is also a rare charcoal sketch of two faces, a man and a woman, by Hussain, on display.
Delhi-based Paramjit Singh has a striking piece reminiscent of a pixelated version of Monet’s water lily paintings. His piece is an ode to the beautiful flowers and parks Paramjeet often visits “Flora and fauna is a theme that is at the centre of a lot of my pieces,” he says.
The exhibition is also about how people interact with the world around them and how those human experiences shape our identity. Which leads one to the final chapter of the exhibition, which is in the gallery library that has been transformed into an activity space where people can write their thoughts next to the works they find the most moving.
There is also a space where visitors leave behind tokens of their own, only to return on the exhibition’s final day to take something left by others, forging a connection with the visitors through a shared experience.
In a world that often feels fragmented and disconnected, this exhibition serves as a reminder of the inherent interconnectedness of all things.
The exhibition is on at Vadehra Art Gallery, Defence Colony, till June 15
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 16-05-2024 at 18:23 IST