You are cordially invited to attend the opening of “A Cry from the Narrow Between”—a two person exhibition of works by Bombay-based artist Tejal Shah (1979- ) and Beijing-based artist Han Bing (1974- ). The show opens at 6.30pm on 12 March, 2010, and runs through 3rd April 2010.

Limning the fraught “narrow between” that both separates and conjoins power and the erotic, the exhibition offers visual frameworks for interrogating the tension between  Eros and Thanatos—forces of generativity and destructivity. Self-making and nation-building—in particular the parallel ambiguities surrounding  gender, class, marginalization and membership—are interrelated themes that provide the vehicles for this investigation. Through the juxtaposition of these artists’ works—including photography, video installation, sound-installation, text-based work and performance art—a tacit dialogue emerges about the vicissitudes wrought by attempts to “modernize,” “urbanize,” and discipline unruly populations that transgress the dominant social norms, and also the about transformative power of the erotic.

Tejal Shah and Han Bing are two young artists at the forefront of their respective generations in the contemporary art scenes of India and China. Both have had solo exhibitions internationally and participated in major group shows worldwide. Their works have also been separately exhibited at institutions such as Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, Columbia Art Museum, and other such venues, and they have previously shown together at the Asia Triennial Manchester 2008.