'Constructed Realities' curated by Gayatri Sinha

A group show, entitled 'Constructed Realities' curated by Gayatri Sinha at Mumbai’s Guild Gallery comprised works by artists Baiju Parthan, Gigi Scaria, and Prajakta Palav. A concept note mentions of the title 'Constructed Realities' that it suggests reality itself is a construct, a structural necessity, one that is read and engaged with through a shared coda of signs. The curator explains:

“The city space we inhabit as structure, as discipline displaces earlier cities and cycles of narration, often to be 're-constructed' in romantic or critical terms. Through cinema, media writings and popular music, the evocation of city as construct becomes layered. Meshed into this continually shifting arrangement are other structures -- those of memory and loss - sites that are dispossessed or repossessed, in pursuit of the city as re-newable structure.

"As onlooker and archaeologist, the artist seeks to establish an objective practice with 'the whole group of functions of observation, interrogation, decipherment, recording…' (Foucault). In this engagement then, sites are 'more' or 'less' real, pasts are evoked or abandoned, and private fantasy is merged with public panoramas. The gaze as it continually moves from physical to virtual reality is extended or withheld, even as it selects or abandons material as the crux of creative expression. Every 'reality' then, has a potentially different 'construction'."

Gigi Scaria is associated with the ever-changing city spaces. His work revolves around public space or rather the lack of it and alternative modes of creation/architecture to help sustain the city. ‘Inside’ and ‘Outside’ by artist Prajakta Palav Aher resemble quirky takes on life closed behind doors and beyond. On the other hand, ‘Soft Graffiti – Placebo’ in Baiju Parthan’s peculiar style, carries images like headphones, numerical equations and Greek alphabets spread across the surface. In ‘Lunch Break (Memorial) 1’ an image of impending doom is presented by the artist.