INDEPENDENTLY
DELHI
PART II

INDEPENDENTLY DELHI PART II

The second half of Independent Delhi examines two very different, but extremely gripping art projects that look at the changing and evolving idea of home, ‘the nest’. What has happened to the notion of a place where one belongs and how that has it changed and evolved during the COVID Pandemic? It is almost like a war, but this time with Nature and even, within the idea of ‘selfhood.’

Standing next to the Momo vendor in Greater Kailash 1 in New Delhi the night lights up as a digital video is projected upon a screen hanging from a balcony that belongs to artist Himani Gupta. The Momo vendor gets excited and says, “Madam I really enjoy these projections, people come to see what is happening and my business has gone up,” he says, tempting me to sample his broiler chicken variety, to which I predictably give in.

‘To Navigate’ is an onsite exploration of the idea of ‘home’ as ‘site’, and site in-flux constantly evolving and transmuting into artwork. A two-phase solo exhibition by Gupta, occurred over ten days at two locations in Delhi, GK and Friends Colony. The works were created across three countries, India, the UK and Africa. The video works, paintings, sketches, text and sound that were created at four locations served as ‘permanent and temporary’ homes for Gupta and her newly wedded husband during the pandemic. Each home is vastly distinct from one another. In Delhi, one of the densest cities in the world, Himani experienced the effect of a populous city ghosted during lockdown. In the UK she had a twin experience where London, the capital of history’s largest empire at one time, appeared isolated and idyllic, and then she went to Africa where she stayed at a home in a protected forest in the middle of an African metropolis and that was an experience of returning back to nature and the wild.

“To Navigate is my response to this period in time, developed over several months and drawn from personal circumstances that have involved essential travel between 3 continents during most of 2020 – Asia, Europe and Africa, moving homes and trying to hold on to routine and plans,” says Himani who created and self-curated the entire show.

She was assisted to document and put the entire project online by Alina Tipange from KHOJ and Kathrine Joy, an independent young artist. Visit the show online on http://hashtagtonavigate.com. The show will be on till April 30, 2021 at Friends Colony studio, New Delhi.

Having her first physical exhibition after a year-long online existence Tunty Chauhan was anxious about putting together a material show, with co-curator Prayag Shukla. The exhibition ‘The Nest’ features works by Anindita Bhattacharya, Jayashree Chakravarty, Manisha Gera Baswani, Nilima Sheikh, Pandit Khairnar, Pooja Iranna, Rajendar Tiku, Sudhir Patwardhan, Suneet Ghildial and Yashwant Deshmukh. The works are quietly evocative and speak to the viewer on a very strong and personal level.
While Nilima Sheikh’s miniature-inspired paintings speak candidly of the destruction, shifting and relocation of the idea of home, through a socio-political lens, especially, Kashmir, Anindita Bhattacharya uses her whimsical and humorous employment of folklore, mythology and she also references the miniatures to speak of the hidden force around the shifting of geographical and emotional boundary lines around the idea of home i.e the ‘nest’.

Looking at the idea of nesting beyond its avian intonations, the exhibition examines the domestic space that became so important for all of us during the COVID-Pandemic and the lockdown. “The domestic experience becomes a rich background for artists to explore- from the home as a vulnerable, fraught and contested space to a site of intimacy, safety, spirituality and haven,” writes the curatorial duo. The exhibition represents diverse practices that voice certain anxieties regarding the home, yet, all of them carry a certain prayer for it. Each artist seeks to untangle the multiple stakes entailed by the practices of ‘making home’ and ‘feeling at home’. The works delve deep and explore the very philosophy behind ‘Nest’ with all its physical and spiritual variations and tenors. The exhibition is on till March 31, 2021.