Saturday, February 26, 2011

'Feminine Syntax: Personal Biographies' at Lemongrasshopper, Ahmedabad

A show curated by Rekha Rodwittiya features Kim Kyoungae, Kim Seola, Lee Hayan , Karishma D'souza, Sonatina Mendes and Malavika Rajnarayan.

The curator of the group exhibition at Ahmedabad based Lemongrasshopper states that the works act as an intimate space of consideration and reflection, which desires to hold dear the personal and the fragile, within a contemporary art environ, growingly beginning to impose the demands for grand as well as epic proclamations. The curatorial note elaborates:
“Like the weaving of a tapestry, the many different threads that knot and come together are what finally make for a complete picture; and as lives interweave too, these spaces of communion hold exquisite value. Feminine sensibility in art is often from those territories that engage with the politics of gender and which chart a history that is crucial to contextualizing self representations."
The participating artists are well conscious of the collective histories they opt to belong to and one that may be viewed as the legitimate legacies of feminist discourse. Their works – equally nuanced and evocative - imbibe oral histories of a multicultural social milieu that become the stage of greater interventions and elaboration. Shared associations, conflicts, cultural investigations and parallel histories are all wrapped in the pursuit of a visual language. The aspects have been distilled to articulate passages of existence for these six women.

Lee Hayan, Kim Seola and Kim Kyoungae are from South Korea. The Indian participation is in form of Karishma D’souza and Sonatina Mendes – both from the state of Goa, whereas Malavika Rajnarayan hails from Bangalore. Incidentally, all three are now based in Baroda, now a site of collective journeys converging for their artistic exploration.

A recurring motif in Rekha Rodwittiya’s paintings is the female figure, evoking diverse shades of feminine emotions and concerns. Her female protagonists often get elevated to iconic proportions.The artist quips that she has invariably identified with those who are marginalized.

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