Exploring notions of space, tactility, and temporality

In recent years, Ranbir Kaleka has explored notions of space, tactility, and temporality through a captivating combination of video projections onto various surfaces, such as painted canvases.

The New York based Bose Pacia had presented his ‘Reading Man’ in June 2009. The show marked his return to gestalt painting. The celebrated artist continued a vibrant vocabulary of figurative painting that crossed from stark realism into whimsical, fantastical narrative. His paintings, both on paper and canvas - in oils as well as mixed media - were almost surrealist. A previous show of video works by reflected his fascination with cinema, in which canvases became activated and animated surfaces.

In this particular body of works, there were paintings that employed large-scale sculptural installation components like window panels, mirrors, found and fabricated objects, and metal armatures. In fact, Bose Pacia in one of its previous shows had presented ‘Fables from the House of Ibaan: stage –1’ that included three installations. The central work of the exhibition depicted a man seated at a table in his home.

As the scene unfolded the viewer could get the sense of the passage of time as the central figure's life carried on around him while the protagonist sat contemplatively. The work itself could be seen as a suspended entity whose teleological function was one of spacio-temporal relations.

A large multi-media painting installation presented at the gallery was a second installment of the series. The works suggested a cinematic undercurrent through the fabrication of absorptive mise-en-scène installations. The largest creation was a multi-canvas installation ‘Reading Man’ from which the show draws its name. Three canvases are stacked - one in front of the other – this creating a three-dimensional painted landscape.

Several sculptural components like a clock, table, jacket, and wire figures extended from the canvases. This curious combination of elements suggested a stage set not quite complete. It rather remained open to further introspection and exploration.