‘Alternate to Another’ at the Guild, New York

The Guild art gallery, New York presents a new group show. Entitled ‘Alternate to Another’, it comprises works by three emerging contemporary Indian artists, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Ved Gupta and Sathyanand Mohan.

The show explores the varied layers of dialogue, existence, battles and also constructs of what surroundings and reality mean to these artists. An accompanying note states: “Engaging with their explorations does create a sense of common mistrust in the reality of their realm and immediate surroundings. Their new body of work is inclined to ask questions as well as provide an engagement for the curious audience with the notions of other realities, ‘other’ alternate to the many ‘others’. Interestingly ‘others’ doesn't imply the alternate here. It represents our reality, the now with its myriad anxieties and layers of the superficial.”

Ashutosh Bharadwaj’s work revolves around objects of desire. He employs images from the familiar public realm, aiming to analyze media frenzy and the effect it has on popular imagination, more so in the context of today’s fast-expanding urban Indian middle-class. On the other hand, Sathyanand Mohan's Surrealist vanitas refer an alternate reality. His works explore an illusion with illusion, a ‘reality within reality’, or a photograph within a photograph.

The way he sets up and uses the studio lighting through the different is really interesting. It tends to generate an image, which shows up these layering, albeit remaining elusive and equally complex. The idea is to explore elements of class politics, the politics of idealism, eroticism, mortality etc. Last but not the least, Ved Gupta tries to source his metaphors from the 'now' much like the other two artists. It’s though far more engaged in a confrontation. He deals with the aspects of inequalities, decay, corruption, and a sense of degeneration prevailing within the constructs of rampaging globalization. For him, there is a clear need to emerge as the voice of those suppressed and to stand up for them through his canvases.

‘Alternate to Another’ is an effort to find the thread, connecting the creative and intellectual pursuits of the artists.