NEW DELHI, Dec 12: The increasing sense of alienation faced by people living in modern metropolis has been captured by international artists at an exhibition here.
Titled “Frozen World of the Familiar Stranger”, the exhibition is a group show of video installations, performances and artworks featuring artists from China, Iran, India, Singapore and Peru.
Co-curated by Sitara Chowfla and Heidi Rabben, the exhibition is an output of curatorial collaboration between KADIST (an experimental arts space in San Francisco), and Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi.
“Through works exploring isolation, confinement, collapse, of inhabiting collective urban space, Frozen World offers an almost satirical point of view on the human condition and what it means to be alive together in the present, and in the constructed future,” says Chowfla.
The show attempts to find a common connection between Delhi and San Francisco while establishing a different perspective on history, culture and memory that informs about their urban core.
Chinese artist Cao Fei is showcasing a video work titled ‘La Town (2014)’ that reflects a world suspended somewhere between reality and dystopia.
The video poses questions about the future of humanity, isolation, and connectivity in a city. Her work, inspired by Asian pop culture, vividly reflects the changes in lifestyle, culture, and identity in times of globalisation.
Fei is one of the most influential figures from the generation of Chinese artists that has emerged on the global scene in the last decade.
Mixed-media work by Indian artist Kartik Sood, consists of two videos, paintings, and sculptures in iron. Titled “Alone Among Many 2016”, the displays explore the experience of loneliness in an urban environment.
“I always felt there is an ironic loneliness in the crowded structures of this city we live in. Under this verge of loneliness, there is a subsequent search for solace within us which most of us seek to search around,” says Sood.
Peruvian artist Maya Watanabe is showcasing her collection videos, where she explores the dimensions of human body in different viable spaces.
“In my videos you see, what is located in the verbal language is transferred to the visual field. For me to be the subject of a video is to see the images of others,” Watanabe says about her collection, titled “El Contorno”.
Artist Sahej Rahal has on display photographs that document performances titled Keeper (2015) and Katabasis (2011).
Keeper was shot in Shodoshima, Japan, at the foothold of the Yoshida Dam, which holds a man made ‘island’ behind it while Katabasis has been shot inside the old art deco-style Opera House in Mumbai.
A set of collage composed of digital prints on archival paper by artist Tejal Shah portrays heterotopic (an abnormal place) landscapes where her subjects deals with ideas of queer, technological, spiritual and scientific spaces.
Indian artist Himali Singh Soin, is showcasing her video work titled ‘Radar Level’ which is set in Mongolia and Namibia.
The exhibition, which was earlier displayed at KADIST in San Francisco, has travelled to Khoj this month and will continue till January 11. (PTI)
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