Solo show, organized by Backyard Civilization (an artist collective)
Site: B C Gallery, Kochi, 2017
Canvas, Watercolour, Charcoal, Oil, Video, Ink, Handmade paper, Graphite, Pinback badges, Reflective tape, Stickers
Dimensions variable
How can we create irreal surfaces that problematise alienation and explore the possibilities of immunity? How can we measure the scale of exploitation and the undeniable hardships endured by people? Reality is produced through violent contradictions, and to unravel these limits, we must turn to our forests and lands. To structure such a critique, we must counter the narratives of events and their consequences in the struggle against the State.
Do we make a space? Do we claim a space? Do we share a space?
Labyrinth invites us to a time of sharing intimacies and practicing knowledge. It departs from dialogues of participation. Gathering, in this context, holds the space. In the language of exhibiting this discursive space, we find a springboard that transforms the exhibition into a communal experience. We initiate dialogues between artists and spectators to bridge the invisible gap and ferment an atmosphere for sharing experiences. While discussing my works on the Indian student struggle for instance, students from several European countries shared their experiences of participating in student movements at home. Through our discussions, we generated coalescences of knowledge about the atrocities perpetrated on tribal people by the Indian state and state-sponsored terrorism in their own nations.
During the initial discussions regarding the exhibition, a theatre practitioner from Kerala, Salvin V F, decided to use the space for a theatre performance. On 22nd December, during the exhibition, they transformed the entire space to present their new theatre production; Eternal Return of the Same—a performance where two bodies spill into spiral dust. Meanwhile, Surya Shankar Das, an activist and filmmaker from Odisha, presented two contradictions: a note on the sources of corporate funding in the contemporary Indian art world and a testimony by Sini Soi, an Adivasi leader from Odisha. The note revealed the shocking atrocities committed by the very corporations that fund the art world.
In the end, it is through sharing our intimate truths and reclaiming our space that we transform irreal surfaces into platforms for hope and collective change.
Backyard Civilization, Latheesh Mohan, Kritika Tandon, Sini Soi, Soni Sori, Surya Sankar Das, Kamal Shukla, Malay Tiwari, Sudip Chakraborty, Abhilasha Srivastava, Abir Chatterjee, Nikhil K C, Kumar Shaw, Salvin V F, Vipin, Jijo Joy, South Side, Vishnu, Alex, Gopalan, Jithin, Sridar, Praveen Ashokan, Hari Prasad, Sebin Joseph, Nashid, Prince