Anjum Singh PURE WATER - EIGHT GLASSES & A QUARTER, 2002
Talwar Gallery is pleased to announce (desi)re, an exhibition expressing the raison d’être of our gallery by bringing together a group of artists that have been introduced by us over the past few years. Desire simmers with passion, is ruled by obsession, and driven by purpose. As George Bernard Shaw once remarked, “You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
Desi, a Hindu word implying “of one’s own country” and used frequently for “of Indian origin” employed here not just as a subset of desire but also as a curatorial component. The artists’ shared origin or “roots” are reflected merely as a single strand in a complex woven fabric that is each artist, each individually without any overt superficial cultural identification.
The artists featured in this exhibition are A.Balasubramaniam, Zarina Bhimji, Allan deSouza, Subba Ghosh, Sheila Makhijani, Ranjani Shettar, Anjum Singh and Alia Syed.
Allan deSouza Terrains, 1999-2000
The group of artists employs a variety of media to translate their unique individual vision with regards to purpose, identity, history, and place. Their desires to exceed expectations of locality, of self; to extract purpose and significance from their familiar environs. To create, these artists have renegotiated the borders and refuse to singularly site themselves or their work; traversing beyond any simplified categorization based on geography, religion, culture, and race. Considered just “desi” in the minds of the uninitiated, these artists collectively represent more than just the country of their ethnic origin. They invoke an awareness of self and the world. They have renegotiated borders to include what lies beyond their inherited “origin.” The boundaries of their cultural landscape have no distinct edge and their identity is not captive of their passports. The moniker “desi” used for them, or any other group of “ethnically” aligned artists is not just simplistic and naïve, but restrictive and exclusionary designation that imparts a linear view of the complex, multidimensional nature of their work and our world.
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Allan deSouza
The Little Deaths, 2004
Tissue paper, artist's sperm
26" x 16"
Allan DeSouza
he had a vague sense of an elusive meaning, a light in the distance, a glimmer on the horizon, something he wanted to say if only he had the language for it, 2001
C Print on Aluminum
23 1/2" x 46 1/2"
Allan deSouza
it didn't hurt, nothing hurt, and he let himself float into the strangeness of the sensation, 2001
C Print on Aluminum
24" x 39"
Allan deSouza
Terrains, 1999-2000
C Print on Aluminum
18 1/2" x 24" (Each of 4)
Subba Ghosh
HELLO, 2002
Mixed media
72" x 26"
Sheila Makhijani
BUTPUTS, 2003
Acrylic on solid acrylic cubes
1.5" x 1.5" x 1.5" (Each of 100)
Anjum Singh
PURE WATER - EIGHT GLASSES & A QUARTER, 2002
Oil on canvas
72" x 90"
Subba Ghosh
MAN IN THE CORNER, 2002
Mixed media
72" x 26"
Ranjani Shettar
MAYA, 2005
Pigment Lacquered Wooden Beads, Silicone Rubber, Stainless Steel
102" x 247" 7"
Zarina Bhimji
HARSH PUBIC HAIR, 1998
Lightbox
33" x 40"
Alia Syed
1001 - Excavation Number 1, 2005
Lightbox
26 1/2" x 82 1/2"
Zarina Bhimji
ARMOUR, 1995
Lightbox
33" x 42 1/2"
