Shifting Selves
Between meaning, mythology & mirage
August 5, 2021 / Spotlight
Something beautiful and bizarre starts to happens when you place disparate works of art and history next to each other. Like a creeper putting out tendrils to investigate higher ground, these objects begin to reach out and whisper to each other. Connections crackles across mediums, styles and eras. Universal themes shine through like iridescent threads. Boundaries break down. That right there is the moment we at Sarmaya live for. And that’s our aim with bringing you the show and the Spotlight, Shifting Selves – Between meaning, mythology & mirage.
First in the series of collaborations between Sarmaya and India’s leading art galleries
Faced with the ravages of the global pandemic, we're all seeking comfort, beauty and a way to strengthen that inner light no storm can disturb. 'Shifting Selves' offers the balm of art and history as it documents this journey inward
Is there a way to return to the site of an old injustice and reclaim our power? Saubiya Chasmawala’s haunting, hypnotic art attempts a revision of exactly this sort
The colours of Gond art, the figures of ancient Egypt and the stories of Greek mythology flower organically on her canvas and demand a closer re-reading
Walking the path of the historian, archivist and craftsman, Saju Kunhan creates room for cultures, centuries and civilisations to constantly collide and create new meanings
Notes by the artist on 'majha', an audio-visual mix media installation by Gaurav Ogale x Farah Mulla
We examine the themes presented in Saju Kunhan's work as they are represented in our collection of rare 19th-century portraits, war photography, engravings, contemporary art and Warli painting
From medieval coins to colonial-era photography, we bring a diverse array of objects from our collection that reinforce the arguments made by Saubiya Chasmawala’s art
Through surreal Gond art, witty feminist narratives and earthy Pattachitra scrolls from our collection, we further the themes that influence Rithika Merchant’s paintings
Witness to the horrors of Partition as a child, Zarina dedicated her decades-long career to exploring the idea of home and belonging, and the lingering pain of displacement
If there's one lesson Mayank Shyam has learnt from his father and legendary Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam, it is to be wholly, joyously, uncompromisingly himself and true to the soil that has nourished him
Artist Anju Acharya’s gaze may seem coolly observational at first, but it is in fact informed by deep wells of emotion and sensitivity towards her environment
Poring over beautiful maps from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries from our cartography collection, we explore the art and science that went into the evolution of this discipline
Sarmaya X TARQ: In conversation with Hena Kapadia 
Shape Shifting: Tracing Classic Indian Style Silhouettes Through The Ages