Press Release

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Preview: Tuesday, 23rd July 2019 l 6:00 pm-9:00 pm

The Exhibition will be on view: 24thJuly - 16th August 2019, 11:00 am-7:00pm (Sunday and Public Holidays Closed)

Venue: Akar Prakar, D 43, Defence Colony, First Floor, New Delhi-110024

Participating Artists:

DHARMENDRA PRASAD I GOPA ROY I KOMPIRIBA I SISIRTHAPAITHLANA BAZIK I TREIBOR MAWLONG I VICTOR HAZRA I WAHIDA AHMED

Curated by Zero Gravity Collective

Akar Prakar Contemporary is pleased to showcase the exhibition A-PART: Stories of Lands and Lines a group show comprising the works of eight artists from the North East including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.

Concept Note

India’s North-East is immensely diverse in many ways, and the prime source of local identity is derived from tribal affiliation, and ethno-linguistic factors. The region is known for a multitude of conflicts and the geopolitical problems having both internal and external context.

Border areas have their own peculiarities and intricacies; often vulnerable to some issues like indigenous identity, sovereignty, and in recent years a huge influx of illegal infiltration of population. These add up the pressure on their social, economic and environmental resources.

What does it mean when we talk about “territory” today? The term does not simply refer to a geographical or spatial area; it carries an extensive horizon including social and cultural belongings and encompasses the personal, psychological and mental sphere. The works in the exhibition reflect different approaches, lifestyles and ways of perceiving the unstable relationship within the borders. Some of the artists have explored the personal and observed narratives surrounding the struggles of flight, assimilation, threats of violence.

The exhibition also incites and expects a conceptual reflection on the distances or barriers, integrated in the perceptual context of a border, a blockage in thinking, acceptance and/or understanding by means of political issues, (im)migration, globalization, climate change, gender, race, culture, terrorism, genocide, war, misogynist behavior, feelings of fear or superiority and so on.

Today we live in the world of rapid development of mobility, the digitization of communication and knowledge, migration and an increasingly global economy; they all have radically changed people’s perception of territories, borders and boundaries. While some of the artists have also looked at the terms 'border' and 'terrain' as its literal meaning, using it as a form, building a story around them or considering them as metaphors in their works.

The exhibition has been developed with an objective to bring forth the artistic interpretation of some of the issues of those specific terrains which somehow feel delineated from the rest. It is also an endeavour to focus on the contemporary art practices of North East India and providing them a platform to engage with a wider audience and to create an interesting dialogue to leave them with a thought to delve upon.

About the Curator

Zero Gravity is a curatorial collective initiated by Pranamita B and Vikash N Kumar which works with the idea of creating an interactive, informal and intimate dialogue with various art practitioners and explore the possibilities of curatorial practices.

Pranamita Borgohain is an independent art curator and writer based in Delhi. She did her Master’s from the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 2007. Her area of research in M Phil was the Contemporary art of North East India (Assam). She has served as the Deputy Curator at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, New Delhi and as an Art Consultant at the Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. She has also served as an Assistant Professor (Visiting), College of Art, University of Delhi. She was one of the curators for the Students’ Biennale as part of The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014, a unique curated event to showcase student artists across India. She is the recipient of KHOJ - Curatorial Intensive South Asia Fellowship 2019. She is the founder of a non-profit organization - Shield Art Initiative that works within the field of contemporary art to address critical social and environmental issues.

About Akar Prakar

Belonging to a family of collectors spanning three generations, Akar Prakar was founded in 2004 by Reena and Abhijit Lath. As a leading Indian gallery Akar Prakar is committed to showcasing among the most coveted modern and contemporary at reputed museums and other public spaces across the world. Operating between its two dedicated venues, Akar Prakar Kolkata and Akar Prakar Contemporary, New Delhi, the gallery represents the finest practitioners and examples of Indian modern and contemporary art with an eye on the South East Asian context and its discourse. Engaging in transcultural histories through various collaborations with museums and curatorial advisors, Akar Prakar has created a space for indigenous representations besides running an active programme of exhibitions, curated walks and seminars in both these venues. Akar Prakar is committed to responsible articulations of Indian art history and has undertaken seminal publications on a number of artists, namely, SH Raza, Gopal Ghose, , Prodosh Dasgupta, Sarbari Roy Chowdhury. Under the banner of its bi-annual magazine, Art Varta, two annual grants have been instituted to recognize young and diverse talent in contemporary research and art practices within the country.

For Further information pleases contact: -

Shreya Jain (From the Gallery) 9878516673

Pranamita Borgohain (Curator) 9999673012

Artists Bios and statements

1. Dharmendra Prasad

After MFA (Painting) from University of Hyderabad he returns to Assam in search for utopia. In the process he encounters ecology as library and harvest as philosophical ground for his practice. After having graduated from the S.N. School of Arts and Communications, University of Hyderabad he went to collaborate in the rural communities in Assam. His works involvethe participation of different occupational backgrounds, particularly farmers and artisans. Through multiple notions of landscapes, he addresses themes of ecology, history, material culture, water bodies, unscripted and occupational narratives, agrarian spaces and its countless conflicts in the context of global crisis. He participated in Pepper House Residency Exhibition, Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2018-19; PEERS Artists’ Residency at Khoj International Artist’s Association, New Delhi, 2018 and selected for Collection Bureau – a pollinator project, India art fair, New Delhi, 2018. He was part of the UKERI project exhibition, Wimbledon College of Arts, London, 2015. He is a founder member of Anga Art Collective (2010) based at Guwahati. He lives and works in Assam.

Statement

The work is an attempt to understand the fluidity and blockage in relation to life, cultural manifestation ecologies and the idea of nation and border. The work is a visual, textual and spatial collection of pages from the life which will hold the historical and everyday documentation of the memory of people in relation to migration, land, territory, violence, indigenous and non-indigenous notions. The work is woven out from the narrative, memories of the inhabitants in the conflict zones and distributed ecologies. The work aims to erase the sense of territory and try to build a counter narrative against borderlines through imagination and asserting the concept of non - place. With the application of objects, images, stories, from the life, the installation will germinate in the setting of gallery as a place of flux and conflict.

We often identify and relate with the land through the ‘Address’ and ‘Naming’. The work conceives address as a concept which signifies the psychological condition of an individual rather than a marker of the landscape. In the context of globe as a fragile place and deterioration of sense of community, social harmony, and ecology it is very important to relate with the land not as a place but as a collection of ecological components and resource of knowledge manifestation to counter the abstract ideas like nation, border, and boundaries. The work speaks about series of imaginary and psychological realities in present socio- cultural context, it also talks about the non – place an imaginary landscape, and behaviourial landscape, a landscape of conflicts, fear and inaccessibility. It is a fluid and un- bordered site, a way of seeking for the space of in-betweens and celebrating it in the context of multiple polarities.

2. Gopa Roy

She has completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts, Department of Drawing & Painting from Government College of Art & Craft, Tripura, 2013 and Master of Fine Arts, Department of Painting from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, 2015. She has participated in several group shows includingEmerging Palettes, Shrishti Art Gallery, 2018; “Woven in Time, Space and Material” by Alliance Francaise Centre, Gurgaon, 2015; “Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Graphics and Ceramics Exhibition” by Russian Centre of Science and Culture, Gorky Sadan, Kolkata, 2014. She has been part of several camps and residencies including “Gram Art Project” (A land art Festival) International Residency by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in Paradsinga Village, Madhya Pradesh, 2016; “NIV” Art Residency at NIV Art Center, New Delhi, 2015; and 8th Crack International Art Camp in Bangladesh, Kushtiya, 2014.

Statement

Her works are the landscapes based on the aerial views depicting various places done with the process of paper making where she chooses natural and organic materials as a medium. Being far away from her native place, the event brings back memories of her village, paddy fields, play fields, school days and her past day to day activities. Her land always knocks her space within to create the metaphor of connections through maps and roads. The rhythm of lines in maps and roads for Gopa is an interesting journey of life. Her works have also been done with the organic process of paper making depicting the land, where she had tried to create images of situation of the survival of life of the villagers from her home town. She often visits rural areas and pick up objects which are common to the people living there. She observes the land texture of different areas and tries to implement them in her works to create a new metaphor.

3. Kompi Riba

She has completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata and Masters of Fine Arts from Kala Bhavana, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. She has participated in many group exhibitions including Blurred Perimeters, India International Centre, New Delhi, 2018; Northeast Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition, Guwahati, 2018; Arunachal Literature and Art Festival, Itanagar, 2018; Melange, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata, 2014; Kala Bhavana Exhibition, Russian Centre for Science and Culture, Kolkata, 2014. She lives and works in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.

Statement

Line has always been her base to start any kind of composition, be it still life or simply doodling. This simple line has led her to do research on the repetitive pattern of her culture. It is fascinating to realize how a simple line has been designed and manipulated in many geometric shapes creating interesting visual composition. This has inspired her to explore the possibility of decoding the psychological expressions of her people. There is a sense of repetitiveness in the motifs of the attire, architect, food culture, rhythm & tune of folk songs, space composition, lifestyle etc. thus it is an attempt to understand the cultural pattern through the lens of visual language. The language of repetitiveness is changing though, the only difference she sense is that earlier the composition and creativity used to be simple yet composed and now it is getting vibrant and restless (cultural shift). The artist says “Our people didn’t have script so to say, but this play of visual language can also be portrayed as text. As an artist I do not know where exactly I am heading towards but the process of exploring culture in such a manner is a great learning time.” For Kompi, the process plays an important role in her artworks.

4. Sisir Thapa

He has completed his Bachelors of Fine Arts (Sculpture) in 2005 and Master of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Kalabhavana, Santiniketan in 2007. He did Advanced Enrichment Programme, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou, China, 2009-2011. He got the opportunity to attend Students’ Exchange Programme, Ecole De Superior de Buax Arts, Lemans, France in2003. He has participated in many group exhibitions including Blurred Perimeters, India International Centre, New Delhi, 2018; Varna – International Art Exhibition, Rabindra Bhavan, Guwahati, 2015;9/10 Mumbai, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2015; ‘Drawing 2014: 7 Decades of Indian Drawing’, curated by Prayag Shukla, Annapurna Garimella & Sindhura D.M, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, 2014; Fragility curated by Rakhee Balaram, Gallery Art Alive, Gurgaon, 2011-12; ‘Transformation of Energy’, Hangzhou, China, 2011; ‘Urgent: 10 ml of Contemporary Needed”, top 10 upcoming artists for FICA award,New Delhi, 2008. He is the recipient of Chinese Government Scholarship, CSC & HRD Govt. of India, 2009-11 and Ramkinkar Book Award, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, 2006. The artist lives in Gangktok.

Statement

Gateways, as a symbol of welcome and power interestingly play an important role in establishing borders. The interests of both internal and external powers are well accommodated and the interplay is reflected in the policies and life inside these access points. The gateways of the Northeast India are seen literally inviting all to the exotic lands and pleasures. The idea of gateway always intrigues the artist. It is not supposed to function as an entry point to both the lands on the two sides where the notion of the border would get nullified. It rather reinforces the idea of borders focusing on only one territory and thereby increasing the thickness of the border. Sharing the Indian border with five different countries the Northeast of India is not unfamiliar with restrictions, control and military presence. There are layers of borders built through check points and restrictions much before the main border arrives, like the echoes of the international borders reflected within the bordered territory. These have a great impact on the socio-cultural life of the residents evidently seen in the northeast India. The story is similar for the interstate borders as well.

5. Thlana Bazik

Thlana has completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts from College of Art, New Delhi in 2013 and Master of Fine Arts from the same college in 2015. He did his M Phil in Visual Arts from School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. He has participated in many group exhibitions including Id-Entity curated by Zero Gravity Collective, 2018; India Re-Worlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation, Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai, 2017; Urban Implosion: Asian Cities, ACC Arts Space Network, Gwangju, South Korea; C-13: An Exhibition, a Proposition, a Playground, a House exhibition collaborated between FICA and Priyanka Choudhary, Pamposh Enclave, New Delhi; Trace, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi; Students’ Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2016; When Does The Curatorial Work Ends with Raqs Media Collective, School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, 2016. He is the recipient of Junior Research Fellowship. FICA Inlaks Goldsmiths Scholarship 2018-19 supported by The Raza Foundation.

Statement

Rih Dil, the biggest and most famous and undoubtedly the most significant lake for the Mizos - as a Geopoetic figure becomes a visual tool to think about the complexities of Mizo identities and sense of belonging through notions of geography and culture and history. The installation is a set of three but unified narratives. Using the text ‘Rih Dil Titi‘ (accessible through QR code) to inform the mythical, historical, cultural and geographical significance of the lake, the Google maps used for navigation while visiting the lake becomes the first tool to think about the complexities that site has had for the visitors. “Arguing that imperial maps […] were meant to suit specific purposes and were laden with deeper agendas, […] other aspiring maps also depicted conflicting claims to territory and overlooked specific details….. the ‘shared memories’ became territorial markers that served as the ‘classificatory distinction’ […] which was unleashed in the ‘aspirational maps’ of ‘Greater Mizoram’.1

In his article ‘Maps, Mission, Memory and Mizo Identity’ (accessible through QR code), Lal Dingluaia examine the role of imperial maps, Christian mission, shared memories and collective consciousness invoked through geographical and fictional sites in the formation of Mizo identity. These ‘inspirational and mental maps’ exhibited are portals to explore the complexities of colonial and post-colonial discourses on identity formation and border construction. The QR code leads to online materials, books and websites.

Use of barbed wire as a Christian iconography, which is also a vicious tool for control and fencing; the sculptures with mirrors served as a tool for reflection (Literal and metaphorically) and question the colonial legacy and institutionalisation invoked through biblical imagination within the Mizo Christian manifolds. While cultural and religious aspirations could transcend actual borders, it is ironic that its actual manifestations create multiple boundaries within the society and segregation of identities which is contradictory.

6. Treibor Mawlong

He has completed his Bachelors of Fine Arts (Painting) from Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, 2010 and Master of Fine Arts (Painting) from the same college in 2012. He has participated in several group exhibitions including Fumetto Festival, Luzern, Switzerland, 2019; Blurred Perimeters, India International Centre, New Delhi,2018; Remembering the Present, Vadehra Art Gallery, 2018; Emerging Canvas -IV, Seoul, Korea, 2016; At the Turn of a Page, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2016. He is the recipient of Inlaks Fine Arts Award, 2014 and Kala Sakshi Memorial Trust Award, New Delhi, 2011. He has worked for ‘U Lum Sohpetbneng Chronicles' - a Comic magazine based in Switzerland, 2017. Currently he lives and works in Shillong, Meghalaya.

Statement

Home is a space where one feels safe, protected and comfortable. With the idea of home there is a sense of belonging in the company of family, friends and the surrounding land and space. When that comfort is challenged, one feels threatened and insecure. This work (nine frame woodcut prints) is an artistic expression that attempts to communicate certain idea of struggles/challenges and existence. The artist loves the medium for its strong graphic quality, to record in the form of drawing into the wooden surface that gives responding visuals to the practice. To him the process of cutting images with the tools is like drawing

1 Dingluaia, Lal. ‘Maps, Mission, Memory and Mizo Identity’ in Transformation, Vol.35(4) 240-250, Sage, 2018. with a different textures and feelings. What interest him in woodcuts for this exercise are the bold and expressive quality of the black background and the sharp lines of the cutting tools. These small woodcuts are compositions from experience with the surrounding space where he lives.

7. Victor Hazra

He has completed his Master of Fine Arts (Painting)fromRabindra Bharati University, Kolkata in 2014 and Bachelor of Visual Arts(Painting)from GovernmentCollege of Art & Craft, Agartala in 2011. He has participated in several group shows including‘Across the Sea’ a cross section from The Gwangwamun International Art Festival, Korea, Inko Centre, Chennai, 2018; The Gwangwamun International Art Festival, Korea, 2018; D-IS-PLAY II, NIV Art Center, New Delhi, 2016; Eccentric, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, 2013; and New Bud, Agartala City Center, 2010. He has receivedPepper House Residency by Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kochi in collaboration with Piramal Art Foundation, Mumbai, 2016; and Piramal Art Residency byPiramal Art Foundation, Mumbai, 2016.

Statement

The contextual frameworks of Victor’s work are on the basis of understanding and observation of ‘Land-Escape’, a term pretty much inherent in the artworks and the process he is currently working on. The concept of ‘Land-Escape’ is an outcome of the observation of transfiguration of the metropolitan cities and territories, an aspect through which he would like to consider the reflection of time and the correlation between man and land. When he sees through a window, there is nothing else but the clustered concrete deprived of aesthetics and the bleak reality of the rapidly growing metropolitan cities that makes me claustrophobic. The increasing population and transformed lifestyle had altered the definition of landscape. Architectonic characteristics of his works are certainly metaphorical; combined with industrial products, the artist is trying to depict the phenomena of Land-Escape, a paradox of vertical and horizontal lines, a parody of Suprematism, chastised by the vehemence of progress.

Adjacent to this, he is also working on some projects which may not directly connect to this concept of Land-Escape; but merely a reflect of human nature and endeavours as a process of progression. Medium plays a significant role to reflect the implicit characteristics of the work. Though, these works don’t belong to the concept as analogous to that, can be felt with sentiment.

8. Wahida Ahmed

She received a Diploma in Fine Arts from Guwahati, Assam. While working extensively for more than a decade she established her own visual idiom.She has exhibited her works widely in national and international exhibitions. Some of her solo exhibitions include Weaving Dreams at Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2011; Nishabda at State Art Gallery Rabindra Bhawan, Guwahati 2007; Intimacies of Silence, Sivasagar, 2008.She has been a recipient of ‘Naari Shakti Award’ by Lions International 2015. She has two publications to her credit Bindu Alekh Bindu & Jibon Dristi, a publication of Assamese poetry. She has also worked extensively to promote the contemporary art of North East India and curated few exhibitions like Blurred Perimeters, a group show of the North Eastern Artists by Raza Foundation in Collaboration with India International Centre, New Delhi 2018; Blurred Perimeters(Kaziranga), an interactive workshop with the local children and invited artists from the country on art pedagogy and ecology; Blurred Perimeters (Community and Life) Dwijing Fest 2018-19, Bodoland, Assam.She lives and works in Guwahati, Assam.

Statement

Ajan Fakir was a Sufi saint and poet of 17th century, who came from Baghdad and settled in Sibasagar district of Assam. He played a vital role in his time by unifying the people of Brahmaputra valley. He has reformed and restored the Sufi Islam in the region. The state of Assam, which is also known as “Shankar Ajanor dexh”, (means the land of Shankar Ajan). Before the colonial administrative ethos, Shrimanta Sankardeva, the other great saint of medieval Assam has contributed majorly for establishing socio-religious landscape of the state and inspired the Bhakti movement. Bhakti and Sufi movements flourished each other in pre-colonial secular India. Through jikir, Ajan Fakir tried to spread the religious principle of Islam among the common people. A sense of respect towards all the cast, creed and religion is present in his songs. With the essence of local folks’ aesthetics in his compositions, his poems got wide and holistic acceptance in the heart of Assamese people. By highlighting his poems in her works, the artist emphasis is on underlining the fading peace and harmony in current religio-political status of the state. The use of clay here represents the lost facets of the multi-dimensionality of his poetry. While the threads resonate the relationship and bonding between the people of the land. It is also an effort to create an architectural experience by conjoining the “Triratha” of a temple with visual aesthetic of “Kaba”, which signifies identity and migration. The work is a visual enquiry on the amnesia of my people. Her aim behind it is to create the reminder on this lost and forgotten dogma. In her painting series ‘For the Love of my Land’ she uses soil as a medium that signifies impermanence and dilution. The application of medium on the surface involves the process of erasing which becomes the metaphorical gesture of slowly fading peace and harmony in the region due to continuation of conflicts. The work emphasizes on harmony by talking about the conflicts related to identity and migration. The works seek to highlight on the fading history and memories in time and space with a sense of weaving with the poetry of Azan Fakir.