An exhibition space tends to revolve around a figure – the gallerist. This exhibition attempts to push the boundaries of such a definition, by reverting the notion of the curator as a sole individual. In this instance, the personal connection between the founders of PHOTOINK and GALLERYSKE extends into a collegial exploration of mediums. Through a conscious collaboration, the dynamic collection of PHOTOINK is introduced to the audience in Bangalore. On the one hand, this show brings together a curatorial reciprocation between two friends and on the other, the edges of photographs with the corners of books.
Our direct material experience of elements is mediated by the camera. The close-up particularly, has reconfigured the manner in which we “see” and therefore understand objects. With Botanicals, Prabuddha Dasgupta moves his lens closer towards flora in a manner which redefines the exchange as an erotic, sensual one. Through Machinations #3, Madhuban Mitra and Manas Bhattacharya zoom into the gears of machines, and evoke a curious sense of liveness in what would otherwise appear to be inanimate. In the assemblage of frames, there is a creation of a whole. Madan Mahatta’s iconic images of architectural models reflect on the potentiality of urban growth but the manner in which they are presented together reveals the overwhelming constructedness of such a promise.
The presentation of photographs of Amrita Sher-Gil by Umrao Singh Sher-Gil along with Vivan Sundaram’s compilation Umrao Singh Sher-Gil- His Misery and Manuscript is an investigation into the multifaceted process of archiving. Sundaram’s reconstruction of his own past provides insight into the book as a mode of art-making based on remembrance. Such a familial haunting fills the pages of Dileep Prakash’s What Was Home, wherein he revisits the sensorial experience of isolation and growth by photographing spaces in his boarding school. Perhaps This World of Dew by Chandan Gomes best encompasses the manner in which mediums and memory coalesce. He recreates the drawings of mountain landscapes from a child’s notebook, through photography and the structure of the book allows for an emotional intimacy that characterizes the work.
The conversations between the spaces is also a symbiotic exchange between the various facets of contemporary art. The fine art gallery, previously familiar with painting, sculpture and installation playfully opens its doors to unique interventions by the photographic medium. PHOTOINK at GALLERYSKE is a postulation on the sharing of memory, space and sundry aesthetic sensibilities.
Text by Samira Bose
