Somethings are always burning By Aditi Singh
Chemould Prescott Road reopens its doors after 10 months to the much-anticipated Aditi Singh solo show. The past few months have been a time for reflection and renovation at the gallery. The engagement of the viewer, the artist and the work in person has been amiss and we look forward to returning to these interactions as we open our first show of 2021, as a part of the Mumbai Gallery Weekend.
Aditi’s works have been part of Chemould’s shows in Mumbai and the global fairs through the last decade and while her solo shows extended to New York more often, we have not hosted her solo show here at Chemould since 2011.
In her body of work somethings are always burning, you will essentially find an eye seeking solitude and commune with nature – the world of color, of light, of form, of shadow. These translations range from a mathematical precision of rings of a tree drawn in fine lines of ink and the blue of layers of glistening ice, of rising storms, to the patterns of petal and leaf; of rhythm in the fluid curve and plunging crests of mountain faces.
In a journal entry from Leh she writes, “why a certain landscape should profoundly tranquilize the mind, I am not sure, perhaps the eye imposes its own rhythm, one has to look creatively to see this mass of rock, water, tree, as more than shape, contour and pinnacle – but as beauty, as vibration, as a glow in the consciousness”.
Coral Fever, Aditi Singh, 2018
Every work in the exhibition speaks of an exploration of self in contemplation, whether in Nepal, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, or the Lake District. She says of these journeys, “The history of walking is an unwritten voyage whose fragments can be found in songs, stories, conversations, poems, books, and in almost everyone’s adventures. One’s imagination has shaped and been shaped by spaces it passes through on two feet. Most of the time walking is merely practical, to make walking into an exploration, a ritual, a meditation, is to infuse the subject of walking, in some sense, with how we invest universal acts with particular meanings, from the spiritual to the sensual, from the revolutionary to the artistic.”
The richly layered drawings and paintings speak of light, splendour, growth, fragility, and tenacity – and the discipline of attentive observation. We answer a need to come into a relationship with wild places when we push our minds and bodies to places that are impossible to find indoors. These images are a glimpse of that world seen through the eyes of Aditi Singh.
At Chemould, we spent many silent moments with Aditi’s works as we curated and prepared for this vast expanse of work over the past few months. Each of them transports you to a moment one would like to escape to. We hope to have our viewers experience a range of subliminal sensations.
The show will run till the end of March.
