CATALYST
ABHIJIT PAL, ADHI MOOLAPERUMAL, AISHWARYA ARUMBAKKAM, ARUN VIJAI MATHAVAN, ASHFIKA RAHMAN, AZADEH AKHLAGHI, BHARAT BHUSHAN MAHAJAN, KINSHAN CHAND HEMLANI, MAYCO NAING, PRAMOD PATI, SUKANYA GHOSH, PHOTO PESHAWAR (AUTHORS : LUKAS BIRK & SEAN FOLEY)
CURATED BY RAHAAB ALLANA
“Catalyst“ looks at interfaces between archival images and contemporary works treading the spaces of activism and art, reaching across the subcontinent to Iran, Bangladesh, Myanmar as well as India.
In recent years, there has been a concerted global shift focusing on personal images for testimony and ‘truth’, presenting lesser-known collections of interpersonal exchanges and community driven imperatives. The works on display, such as the Minute Camera mug-shots or found works from the streets of Myanmar, present embedded regional narratives that exist outside mainstream circulations and suggest an emergent visual politics and aesthetics, moving beyond the known stereotypes of identity imagery. Certain staged works that are presented, even those of cinema from India, aim to showcase dramatized and even satarised views of the everyday, and bring into focus performative aspects played out through media practices. The photographs presented through these new juxtapositions are meant to provoke a consideration of the majority and minority stances associated with understanding our cultural past and present, by thinking beyond an empiricist analysis of images to those images which playfully enact and enter popular consciousness.
In partnership with the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts (AFA)
Special thanks: PIX, Serendipity Arts Festival
Azadeh Akhlaghi, Mirrzadeh Eshghi, Tehran, 3 July 1924, From the series By an Eyewitness, Hahnemühle Ultrasmooth Fine Art Paper, 109.2cm x 210.8cm, Photo Taken 2012. Courtesy of the artist.
Sukanya Ghosh, Still from the video Isosceles Forest, 2018. Courtesy of the artist
Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu (My Name is Chin Chin Chu), 1958, From the series Items. Photographed with Pratima Sonni, 36, Physiotherapist & Fitness Trainer Mumbai, 2013, Film. Courtesy of the artist.
Adhi Moolaperumal, At meditation, 1937-1967 | Private Collection, NID Dissertation Project Nathan Studio | Adhi Moolapermumal Archive by Arun Vijai Mathavan. Courtesy of the artist.
Mayco Naing, From the series Freedom From Fear, Modern Digital Reprints, 2014. Courtesy of the artist.
Bharat Bhushan Mahajan. Paper Negatives and Positives. 1960-80s. 13.9cm x 8.9cm. Courtesy of The Alkazi Collection of Photography.