Shifting Selves

Between meaning, mythology & mirage

/ read / August 5, 2021 / Spotlight
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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.

 

Where do we go from here? - 19th Century Photography, Ethnographic Photography, featured, Feminism, lockdown, Modern Art, Mughal numismatics, Numismatics, pandemic, Rare Book, Rithika Merchant, Saju Kunhan, Saubiya Chasmawala, Shifting Selves

Where do we go from here?

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
Mapping Mirages: The art of Saju Kunhan - Contemporary Art, Delhi, featured, image transfer, Maps, Saju Kunhan, Shifting Selves

Mapping Mirages: The art of Saju Kunhan

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
Whose land is it anyway? - Amit Mahadev Dhombhare, Delhi, Engraving, Ethnographic Photography, featured, Felice Beato, Panorama, People of India, Portraits, Saju Kunhan, Shahjahanabad, Shifting Selves, Warli, Zarina Hashmi

Whose land is it anyway?

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
Reading between the lines - Akbar, Aurangzeb, calligraphy, featured, Mughal Coins, Mughal numismatics, Nur Jahan, Saubiya Chasmawala, Shah Jahan

Reading between the lines

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
To the earth we return - Anju Acharya, Dhruvi Acharya, featured, Laltu Chitrakar, Mayank Shyam, Rithika Merchant, Shakuntala Kulkarni, Shifting Selves

To the earth we return

Through surreal Gond art, witty feminist narratives and earthy Pattachitra scrolls from our collection, we further the themes that influence Rithika Merchant’s paintings
Zarina Hashmi and the idea of home - Cartography, Delhi, displacement, Engraving, featured, Feminist Art, home, Maps, Shifting Selves, woodcut print, Zarina Hashmi

Zarina Hashmi and the idea of home

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
Mayank Shyam and the forest of Gond - Environment, featured, Folk and Indigenous Art, Gond, Gond Art, indigenous and Tribal Art, Mayank Shyam, Shifting Selves

Mayank Shyam and the forest of Gond

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
Anju Acharya and the circle of life - Anju Acharya, Climate change, Contemporary Art, Environment, featured, Nature, Organic, Poetry & Nature, Shifting Selves

Anju Acharya and the circle of life

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
Early Indian Maps - Cartography, Indian Cartography, Indian maps, Maps, Shifting Selves

Early Indian Maps

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