LIVING THE NEW NORMAL : IN THESE EXCEPTIONAL TIMES

Living the New Normal : In These Exceptional Times

Artist participating: Anita Dube, Mithu Sen, Prajakta Potnis, Pushpamala N, Shilpa Gupta

Curated by DR. ARSHIYA MANSOOR LOKHANDWALA

Curatorial Note By Dr. Arshiya Mansoor Lokhandwala

“The state of emergency in which we live is not the exception but the rule.” – Walter Benjamin

The new normal is anything but ordinary. The world as we know it has changed forever since December 31st, 2019. Most of us have never experienced an epidemic let alone a pandemic of an epic nature that affected every corner of the earth. The future has never looked more uncertain with no definitive cure or end in sight, leaving with us anxious, disoriented, overwhelmed, and paranoid. Sigmund Freud a noted psychiatrist has defined this as the “uncanny” or “unheimlich” in German when what is familiar somehow appears estranged or foreign, wherein social distancing, facemasks, lockdowns, quarantine or curfews have become the new norm. The exhibition Living the New Normal explores the work of 5 Indian women artists that allude to the extraordinary but incongruous moment that we are experiencing highlighted through their various bodies of work which refers to the current zeitgeist.

Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala is an art historian and curator [Ph. D. Cornell University] Master’s of Arts in Curating, Goldsmith College, London], and the founding director/curator of Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai, India. Her recent museum curatorial projects include Beyond Transnationalism: The Legacy of Post –Independent from India at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai [April 2017] and Raza Foundation, Delhi [January 2017], India Re- Worlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation [2017], Given Time: The Gift and Its Offerings [2016], both at Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai.