Beginning February 20, Shrine Empire Gallery will present a dramatic exhibition titled HOME at the Travancore Art Gallery in New Delhi. This exhibition has been curated by Mumbai based writer and art consultant Anupa Mehta. As part of this exhibition, participating artists, Shantamani, Surekha, Mayura Subedar, Prajakta Potnis and Minal Damani will install an entire environment comprising of their works in different spaces of the gallery.
Amsterdam based Mayura Subedar will present her most recent installation titled, Load shedding and modak making.Describing the work, Mayura says, “It’s an ambitious work involving a opera singer who has sung the libretto I have written based on newspaper articles on the load shedding phenomenon in the Bombay area. Though this work is not an opera- I have tried to use the narrative, dramatic, operatic elements in the vocal part of this piece. Apart from vocals this work is about food - the maharastrian delicacy 'modak' plays very significant part in this work, which I consider to be my rich cultural legacy.
This sweet to my mind is always linked with a sense of contentment, stories, memories and creating. The act of making, the gestures are imprinted on my mind and are important part of the ritual that is enacted in a contained space - white room measuring 154 cm (my height). Since mid 2007 I have performed, acted, gestured, made rituals in this white room- an essential part of most of my recent video-works. I found this pivotal moment of contentment, confusion, memories and pain linked strongly with the idea of home almost by chance when my mother over telephone said (in Marathi) "modak kase karenaar garam hotya" (How can I make modaks when its so hot, its hot due to the load shedding). This work is meditation on the disjunction between the current Indian urban middle class homes with their rich cultural legacy and its eviscerated modern present-massive development with mega-malls and gated communities for the burgeoning middle class with all the modern trappings but rationed electricity.”
Bangalore based Surekha will install two videos and objects in the form of a video installation, which intends to evoke a dialectic chat, while addressing the thematic ‘Home’. One of the video’s “Making Home” attempts at picturing a different definition of home, the other video “all I need is a pillow to sleep” is about ‘‘Homelessness’’. Beyond the obvious contradiction, the other possible relation in between is intended, through this installation. Home away from Home is what twentieth century has become accustomed to, by and large. Thus, this set of video teasingly addresses certain sets of pastiches like indoor-outdoor, home-homeless, secured-discomfort etc., This video-installation intends to tackle the homely comfort of viewing, i.e., turn the audience from passive to active. “Making Home” is a video, which appears as a ‘moving home’ of its own self, within itself. The narrative explores the typical interiors of a home, leading to a woman sleeping, holding a toy-home-like silhouette. All that has been seen till now, is revealed, again, within that silhouette. The labyrinth of memory makes a home, a home. The geography of a home is its memories and private memoirs. The images of interior of a home to beautiful landscape ends in a blank space in the process, a subtle play of dream and reality. The video “Making Home” intends to point out this shift from the physicality of a given space to the happenings within. This looping of the video and recalling one’s memory of a lived-space (home) are being equated in the video. “a pillow to sleep” is a video about a homeless woman, living in Cubbon Park (Bangalore). She has been living there from past forty years, carries all her clothing under her skirt and a small bag is all her property. She is not bothered by the authorities, retains her dignity, doesn’t dream anything (according to herself) and more than anything, does not feel insecure for not being able to have a home. A rejection of concept of home /roof…….with or without a choice.
