Drawing can be both fundamental and happenstance to the practices of certain artists. Yet there are some whose practices hold drawing as an imperative part due to the viewing of it as “a conceptual arc” and a tool of expression. Experimenter’s Drawn From Practice II featuring the works of Ayesha Sultana, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Sanchayan Ghosh, Seher Shah and Sreshta Rit Premnath at the gallery’s Ballygunge Place space looks at how their individual works both bind the exhibition together, yet each stands out due to their distinct vocabulary.
Work by Ayesha Sultana
Notes from a City Unknown by Seher Shah
Ayesha refers to her process as a “verb” and it is the bodily process of drawing that is manifested in her work, while Bhasha’s works at this exhibition comprise a series on paper, made with discarded denim and indigo, along with handwritten translations and notes from her diary. Prabhavathi’s minimalistic art is drawn from her ancestral artisanal practice and that of her own that explores space, form and materiality with subtleties that can often only be examined from close quarters but add a depth to her practice. Sanchayan’s A Site for the Pedagogy of Resistance is an immersive architectural drawing in conversation with the 17 drawings of swastika by Paul Klee made in the 1920’s. “Klee was in pursuit of a scientific engagement with space and construction and always emphasised on the search for a balance. By activating the installation through a series of conversations and happenings, Ghosh constructs a series of planned exercises and re-engages with the individual drawings made by Klee, to locate moments of resistance within the system itself,” says a dossier on the exhibition. Meanwhile, Sreshta’s multimedia format seems to be testing the possibilities and limitations of political agency. Seher’s poignant and relevant work based on her poetic notes on a city form the crux of her work in Notes from a City Unknown, which looks at a city getting infiltrated by nationalism and surveillance.
Work by Bhasha Chakrabarti
A Site for Encounters for Drawn From Practice II at Experimenter’s Hindustan Road gallery looks at the act of drawing from the points of view of movement, action and interaction. “A Site for Encounters will cradle the practices of Samuho Collective, Prashant More, Surjit Nongmeikapam and Continew, which will in addition to hosting the finished pieces performed for the exhibition, also be a space for deliberations, thought-forms, and rehearsals that are publicly accessible and seen as drawings and scaffoldings that lead to their final form,” explained the dossier.
Drawn From Practice II featuring the works of Ayesha Sultana, Bhasha Chakrabarti, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Sanchayan Ghosh, Seher Shah and Sreshta Rit Premnath is on at Experimenter, Ballygunge Place till June 30. Meanwhile, A Site for Encounters for Drawn From Practice II featuring the works of Prashant More, Surjit Nongmeikapam and dancers from Continew will be hosted on May 25 at Experimenter’s Hindustan Road gallery.