NAVIGATING THROUGH THE MINDSCAPES
Interiority has been an important aspect of our existence, ever since the lockdown. The last two years have been slow and often static, when compared to our busy cosmopolitan lives. However, this pause has given us time to dwell upon our mindscapes and artists have certainly taken the opportunity to explore their creative realms internally. ‘Playhouse of her mind’ at Latitude 28 explores the mindscapes of strong female voices.
‘Playhouse of Her Mind’ at Latitude 28, New Delhi, resides upon the interiority of memories, metaphors, allegories and dreamscapes, among other forms, to confront the conceptions of repossessing current realities and future likelihoods. It brings together strong female voices from the ‘annals of art history’, and focuses on the ‘mechanisms of erasure and its ramifications through the artist’s lived experiences.’ It is about artists giving the amorphousness of space, physical dimensions through shape, colour, form and structure, to accentuate its experience and meaning.
“In an increasingly polarized world, existing in binaries, where conscious division on the basis of identity has become the norm, this exhibition can be read in multiple ways. It is a palpable rendition of character in a feeling, a frame of mind, a visceral response; an adjective that makes tangible as metaphor, elusive ideas or the texture of a distant memory. It represents more than a physical faculty,” says Bhavna Kakar, director, LATITUDE 28 and editor in chief of TAKE on Art.
Bakula Nayak employs vintage blueprints (of factory drawings) to talk of derelict or abandoned construction sites as a metaphor for the human obsession with fabrication. It indicates that it is perhaps time to change from anthropocentrism to biocentrism, from that which is dominated by mankind to that which includes nature in a holistic manner, where all forms of life have an ‘intrinsic value’. Bakula breathes new life into forgotten pieces of beauty by painting on them. Gorgeously aged vintage papers form the perfect canvas to interpret the reality of her world – an unfinished inventory of her daydreaming, and her love affair with all things vintage.
Gopa Trivedi’s sensibilities are deeply rooted in the Indian Miniaturist traditions. Her approach is to revisit and ‘re-infuse’ the miniatures so that they are ‘re-contextualized’ to current situations. This re-appropriation is brought about by fusing the miniature court styles of traditional painting methods with new media techniques.
Pranati Panda engages with a variety of materials, executions, ornamentation, and consistency. Her work explores the ‘fragility’ of the human intellect, a sense of ‘wonderment’ about the working of one’s memory and also that which is visible against that which is invisible. For her, fabric and thread are the perfect medium of self-expression. The textural works are playful yet possess a biomorphic quality that has more serious connotations of origin and genesis.
Revati Sharma Singh through her intricate assemblages brings forth a variety of textural surfaces. She uses the language of grains, food, hunger contrasted with that of abundance to address issues of race, colour, class or religion.
Shalina Vichitra traces the spaces uncharted as complex cartographic-like terrains. Her works are almost like archives which frame and contextualize a ‘piece’ of land. It could just be an area with markings on its surface, but she captures its layers and the patterns in the overall fabric of the Earth.
Shalini Dam uses materials like terracotta to create a sense of an illusion, a surface which then creates another layer of meaning in what is otherwise a ‘monolithic binary. She likes to explore the ‘contradictions’ and ‘dualities’ that lie hidden under the surface. Dam’s work uses optical illusion to animate the surface of the clay, which is interactive as it appears to change as the viewer walks around the work. This particular artwork, titled ‘Not Everyone Will Dance in the Rain’ comprises two parts: a wall piece with a 2-D rendition of the unique pattern inspired by one of the most documented and photographed step-wells, the Chand Baori (step-well) of Abaneri, in Jaipur, Rajasthan and a 3-D inverted trapezoid, also inspired by the Chand Baori. It explores the narrative around water particularly its accessibility. Dam poses the question, ‘Who gets a share of this natural resource and who is denied?’
The works are all highly textural and the varied textures, materials and forms employed allows them to exude a certain kind of tangibility, while bringing out the significance of materiality in empowering the self-expression. Our advice is to catch the exhibition at the gallery however, one can also catch it online.
Text By Georgina Maddox
Image Courtesy: Latitude 28 and artists
Find more about the Artists and Gallery:
https://kynkyny.com/bakula-nayak-biography/
http://www.shiftingframes.com/gopa-trivedi.html
