18.10.11

14 Proper Nouns

Here's an ad I made earlier in the month that appeared in Frieze magazine for the upcoming “14 Proper Nouns” discussion between the artist Hassan Khan and curator Nida Ghouse, who is a DELFINA/FICA curatorial/research fellow. The discussions will revisit Khan's “17 and in AUC” work.


The event (?) begins from the 21st October to 3rd November at The Delfina Foundation in London. Promises to be a fun event, be there!

4.8.11

This is Not Fryslân

A sneak peek at some images from last year's commissioned residency in Fryslân, a northern Dutch province. The project, curated by Feico Hoekstra, invited 6 photographers to explore the province for a month from an “outsider's perspective”. The other photographers invited were Martin Cregg, Derek Henderson, Anna Kahn, Lisa Robinson and Bukkie Dos Santos.

It was quite challenging and a completely different experience for me as I am so used to being in India when I make pictures and work on projects. That said, being thrown into unfamiliar territories forces you to really think about what it means to photograph and re-present a place, familiar or unfamiliar. The series became an exercise in thinking about constructed representations and the identity of a place on the one hand, and the intermingling of value—cultural, economic, personal and representational—on the other. The images below are an introduction to the project.












29.6.11

“Of Blind Men and Elephants Show” in Dubai

The Cinemas Project is part of a group show that is on at the The Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai. The show is curated by the ever-awesome Hester Keijser (one half of Keijser & Beierle and of Mrs. Deane blog fame) and features the works of Mahesh Shantaram, Priya Kambli, Michael Bühler-Rose, Neil Chowdhury, Vidisha Saini and myself.

The show is on from June 14 - July 31, 2011 so please check it out if you happen to be in Dubai!

Here is an excerpt from the exhibition note:
Anyone attempting to offer a comprehensive survey of contemporary Indian photography will soon resemble the mythical blind men who were unable to comprehend the entire form of the elephant. The vast Indian subcontinent simply defies an all-embracing view, and can only be celebrated in its dazzling, kaleidoscopic plurality of visions. 
Like the blind men, who ultimately rely on communicating to one another their tales of the same beast if they ever want to arrive at any kind of insight, so do we rely on the many stories told of India by the photographers in this group show. Each of them offers the viewer an intuition of the mutable, living entity that is India, a country and culture that exists most of all in our imagination.
To see some images fromt he show, click here. Press release here. A review here. A short note by the curator here.

Here is a small selection of my images featured in the show:



28.5.11

“This Is Not That” show

If anyone happens to be in Paris, we have a group show of ten photographers from India being hosted by the Duboys Gallery till the 19th of June.

The show is curated by Dominique Charlet and Fabien Charuau; and the photographers showing their work are Binu Bhaskar, Brijesh Patel, Dhruv Dhawan, Fabien Charuau, Pradeep Dalal, Swapan Parekh, Soham Gupta, Mahesh Shantaram, Neil Chowdhury and myself. I will be showing images from my Cinemas Project series for the first time and it's quite exciting to be part of a show with several photographers whose work I admire and respect.

A friend who visited the gallery last week was nice enough to take a partial installation shot for me...


And here are a few shots from the opening, courtesy the gallery (you can see the whole set here)...











13.4.11

“Nature as Image” show

Happy to be a part of Subuhi Jiwani's group show “Nature as Image” at The Loft gallery (opening this Friday). I will be showing some images from my stay in Fryslân. Do come if you get the time, it's on for two weeks (April 15-May 3). Other artists showing are Neha Choksi, Priyanka Dasgupta, Munir Kabani and Shambhavi Kaul.


Here is a peek at two of my images from the show...



More work from this series coming soon...