Capital Threads

THE DELHI CONTEMPORARY Art Week (DCAW) was born in 2017—and has since blossomed into an important platform for contemporary art. Its purposeful curation, interactive public program­ming and the opportunity to explore the works of countless artists under one roof has turned it into “a key destination for established and emerging collectors alike, as well as art enthusiasts eager to be a part of this con­versation,” says Bhavna Kakar, a gallerist and one of DCAW’s co-founders. Kakar, who is also the founder and director of the Delhi-based LATITUDE 28, is thrilled to bring out her gallery’s finest trove for the seventh edition of the week-long DCAW at the historic Bikaner House. This year, one of the dominant themes that the DCAW is celebrating is the resurgence of textile art. As someone who has long championed the versa­tility and subversive power of textile art as a contemporary medium, Kakar says, “LATITUDE 28’s showcase at the DCAW 2024 reinforces the rich histories and dynamic possibilities of textile art within contemporary visual practices, featuring techniques such as weaving, crochet, embroidery, zardosi and kantha.” By infusing various textile Indian crafts with other art forms, her roster of exhibiting artists (Veena Advani, Khadim Ali, Viraj Khanna and others) will transform humble threads into an intricate woven art—an approach that, Kakar reckons, is bound to add nuance and depth to their works and “help them spin profound stories and emotions in the language of contemporary art”.

DCAW represents a collaborative initiative among six leading galleries from Delhi. Most interestingly, what makes this coalition unique is that all these six partner galleries (apart from LATITUDE 28, the alliance includes the Vadehra Art Gallery, Shrine Empire, Blueprint12, Exhibit 320 and Gallery Espace) are run by women entrepreneurs, who come together every year to demonstrate a collective sense of community and commitment.

Although it is perhaps inevitable that the six galleries will vie with each other to dazzle visitors with the most delectable offer­ings at their respective booths in Bikaner House, there is an em­phasis on collaboration rather than competition here. It is more about ‘how we can do this together’ rather than ‘who does it best’. “In an industry often driven by competition, this ‘sisterhood’ of galleries underscores the power of unity in elevating the contemporary art scene. By coming together, we create a richer, more diverse experience for visitors, fos­tering an inclusive environment. DCAW is the ultimate collaborative effort—a rare phenomenon that is greater than the sum of its parts,” states Shefali Somani, co-founder of Shrine Empire, a gallery that she established along with her part­ner Anahita Taneja in 2008. Somani adds that DCAW is considered an important event that heralds the beginning of the art season in the capital. “While Delhi has a year-round vibrant art scene, DCAW which is typically held towards the end of summer, acts as a catalyst for heightened activity,” explains Somani, whose gallery this time is spotlighting conceptual practices of different artists who experi­ment with a wide array of materials and mediums in their work.

TEXTILE ART AND the tactile experience of seeing everyday emblems being transformed into something new and exciting will be taking centre stage at this year’s DCAW, a trend that Shrine Empire’s line-up of artists echoes. The gallery will be showing the works of Hema Shironi and Natasha Das for the first time. For both artists, textile has remained a chosen medium of expression, often conceived as a commentary on contemporary politics. Colombo-based Hema Shironi often draws on her personal history and cultur­al heritage. Influenced by the political and social dynamics of her region, she falls back on the power of textile to address the grand themes of identity, memory and displacement. Among other works, Shrine Empire is exhibiting Shironi’s Shelter for Life, a printed fabric-on-textile offering that incorporates traditional techniques and materials. “Sustaina­bility is central to her practice, with an emphasis on using reclaimed or natural fibres, reflecting a broader concern for the environment and the preservation of cultural practices,” says Anahita Taneja of Shrine Empire, adding that her gallery is also exhibiting Shironi’s Starving Flag, a powerful piece of stitched embroidery that appropriates the Buddhist flag to reflect her fellow citizen’s disillusionment against the Sri Lankan government.

The mood is optimistic over at Gallery Espace, too. Despite its 35th anniversary celebrations on the horizon, the gallery’s founder Renu Modi is currently focussed on her participation in DCAW 2024. Gallery Espace, which opened its door to the public in 1989 (its logo was designed by MF Husain), is showcasing the works of promising young artists such as Ishita Chakraborty and Soma Surovi Jannat, alongside more well-known names like Amit Ambalal, Ravi Agarwal and Rashmimala. “We are showing Ishita Chakraborty’s Rhizome Notes (2023), a terracotta work that draws attention to the ecological crisis in the Sundarbans. Similarly, Soma Surovi Jannat’s work is also inspired by nature. As its title suggests, Soma’s Time without Birth and Death (archival ink on paper) questions the cyclical nature of existence, emphasising the themes of birth and death. Ravi Agarwal, on the oth­er hand, has offered us a bunch of gorgeous, never-seen-before images including one of a haunting, mist-covered tree which we are excited to display at the DCAW,” says Renu Modi.

Other galleries are not far behind when it comes to putting on their best show. At Vadehra Art Gallery, visitors are likely to encounter an impressive ensemble of South Asian artists, mostly familiar names like Sudhir Patwardhan, Atul Bhalla, Atul Dodiya, to name just a handful. Catering to a diverse au­dience, the Vadehra Art Gallery’s curation aims to mirror the com­plexities of contemporary South Asian culture through its focus on painting and photography. Noteworthy artworks in this section include Anita Dube’s Erotics/Politics (2020) which investigates the idea of the gaze, Faiza Butt’s enigmatic portraits and Patwardhan’s recent suite of drawings that exude a remarkable sense of domestic drama.

Once dismissed as a ‘woman’s pas­time,’ textile-based art is in the midst of a renaissance. For centuries, techniques like embroidery, patchwork, weaving and stitching may have been underval­ued in the male-dominated art world but these forms of expression are finally gain­ing the recognition they deserve. DCAW illuminates this transition and hopes to give some context in a special exhibition dedicated to tapping the full spectrum of textile craftsmanship. Threads that Bare: The Legacy of Indian Textiles in Contempo­rary Art will be displayed in the old wing of Bikaner House. Here, 14 artists from rising talents to masters of the craft will rub shoulders. “Threads that Bare aims to highlight how today’s artists draw upon a rich tapestry of textile traditions from across India to create works that are as layered and complex as the history they represent. Beyond their art, artists com­municate the hidden codes of textiles as carriers of history, social identity, and regional pride, passed down through generations as heirlooms and symbols of cultural continuity. In contemporary art, Indian textiles have transcended their conventional roles to become a powerful voice,” says Bhavna Kakar, of LATITUDE 28, who incidentally suggested the show’s title.

Art critic Girish Shahane, who had curated a group show titled Conjunction of the Spheres at DCAW last year, returns this time with A Bold Step Sideways. Featuring a selection of 18 artists, this group exhibi­tion at the LTC gallery examines how art­ists are sidestepping traditional notions of originality in the 21st century. The con­ceptual framework of the show is rooted in Shahane’s ongoing research that seeks to update the theory of postmodernism with a more contemporary perspective, which he refers to as ‘paramodernism.’ Shahane believes that artists working today are less preoccupied than their predecessors by the burden of art history. “Nothing is absolute in art and change isn’t a complete break from the past.” This thought will resonate across A Bold Step Sideways in multiple ways, offering a different lens depending on the expe­riences and creative reflections of each of the 18 artists. Shahane remarks, “In A Bold Step Sideways, a variety of forms and mediums coexist without hierarchy, which reflects the state of the art world at large today.”

Shahane’s show will emphasise personal narratives, a trend that has grown increasingly popular in the age of social media. For example, artist Joya Mukherjee Logue, who lives in the US, explores her family connection with Almora in her practice while Jayati Kaushik uses a pashmina owned by her mother as an emblem of maternal warmth and nurturing. Then there is Al Qawi Nanavati’s elegiac art that serves as a memorial for her deceased mother and Awdhesh Tamrakar, who hails from a community that traditionally works with copper and bronze and whose work depicts the making of utensils even as it laments the impending extinction of the practice. Shrimanti Saha is one of the young artists who will be showing at A Bold Step Sideways. Her large-scale, mixed-media landscape, titled The Tunnel Workers, was inspired by a news report about a group of workers trapped in a tunnel in Uttarakhand. Saha’s dense and dystopian scenes are often littered with art historical references. Drawing inspira­tion from the Indian miniature format, her work weaves together unlikely threads, such as Gustave Courbet’s The Stone Breakers and Plato’s allegory of a cave, into a surreal romp. Yet, she argues that in the era of excess information through social media there is no point in striving to be original. Describing the chasm between ‘reference’ and ‘influ­ence’ as liminal, she says, “In my art practice, I do take references from other sources. I cannot deny that I have been influenced by genres and artists who have existed before me. That said, while taking a reference I feel like I’m extract­ing an element from somewhere else and placing it in my work. In doing so, the derivative motifs become something else when they start interacting with the other pre-existing elements in my work.” She believes that through the act of making more and more work “something different will always emerge through the subjectivity of the artist and her context.”

(Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) is on view at Bikaner House from August 31 to September 4)

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Shaikh Ayaz

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