There are a few occasions where the link between the artwork and the room in which it is housed is so poetic, it seems like the sculptures are inhabitants, their sense of belonging and legitimacy within the space too obvious to be questioned. Vibha Galhotra's Flow (2015), for instance, crafted from ghungroos and resembling an extensive metal mass or even a swarm of insects, seems like something semi-solid seeping down the corner of the room to spill over onto the floor. Incidentally, the ceiling in the room has a few moist patches, which makes the work 'fit' even better. Nagy trusts that Galhotra's sculpture will also serve as a deceptive visual device, provoking visitors' preconditioned notions of what a sculpture can look like as well as what it can evoke. He does the same with Gyan Panchal's pelom 1 and pelom 2 (both 2012) that look like two cut slabs of green marble that are leaning in on two walls. It is only the bilingual wall caption that alerts visitors that the marble has been coloured by the artist with green ink so as to appear as naturally occurring. It's a trompe-l'oeil, and it works successfully because of how casually they have been placed in a room with more minimalist frescoes. Prashant Pandey's Peace (2015) is also composed of fragments of marble arranged in a three-dimensional sphere that from a distance appears like a white orb floating within the room, while Manish Nai's Untitled (2017) looks like five fabricated rods resting against the centre of the room's arch. These rods are actually composed of compressed found cloth and fabric, a technique Nai has been using for many years. Similarly, Subodh Gupta's Stove (2013) features found utensils compressed into a rectangular block placed upon an antique stove such that their traces or scars are exposed. The work sits perhaps in too close proximity to Jitish Kallat's Vertical Chronicle of a Turbulent Equilibrium (2013), a bamboo-and-rope-like ladder that looks like the kind used either as scaffolding or while work is in progress, but is actually made of resin. Gupta's Stove echoes Kallat's Annexation (2009), a larger-than-life size replica of a kerosene stove but filled with rich details of flora and fauna reminiscent of those that stud the corners and arches of Mumbai's Victoria Terminus (renamed Shivaji Terminus).

curation

An Imperfect Egg

In a Beautiful Labyrinth