TAKE on Art Magazine | Contemporary South Asian Art & Culture Publication

The Elemental You

A special feature of the show were the profound texts that accompanied some of the works. That was another point of convergence for the three participating artists—all of them are remarkable writers, in the words of the curator, who has not shied away from sharing their creative output in the written form as well. The show pushed the boundary of viewing art through our traditionally calibrated lenses and, in doing so, put KNMA in a different league of nurturing Indian art (needless to say, it is already in a different league altogether). With an overwhelming majority of Indians consuming and creating art through conventional tropes, shows such as ‘The Elemental You’ awaken us to the limitless possibilities that we ignore for the sake of convenience.

Ephemeral Visages

Ayesha Sultana feeds off her environment-generating processes that articulate her vision. Her need to not over-narrativize her work is compelling, and sometimes unsettling, as one finds various access points that could point to the potential underlying genesis; however, she is keen to empower the predicaments one offers in favour of her practice.

The Elemental You

Ephemeral Visages

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In an era when the climate crisis is no longer an abstract future but a daily condition of life, the question confronting contemporary art is not simply what it represents, but how it thinks. How does art hold contradiction, vulnerability, and survival at once? How does it remain porous to history while alert to planetary urgency? Amphibian Aesthetics, the inaugural exhibition at Ishara House in Kochi, enters this question not as metaphor alone, but as method.

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In a conversation between Korram and Rahee Punyashloka, the curator of exhibition, the former remarks that guns, whether toys or weapons in the hands of guards, are part of daily life in Bastar. During elections, festivals and other such large gatherings, the presence of armed personnel is naturalised under the name of security. The effect is to position violence not at the periphery but at the centre of experience, where it becomes impossible to separate civic, ritual or recreational activities from the shadow of militarisation. In particular, these sculptures highlight the speed of modern forms of violence and deforestation, such as automatic weapons, heavy machinery for logging and armed jeeps used by hunters.

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