A play with words and meanings

Integrating sounds, poems, videos, sculptures, paintings, crafts, photographs, embroideries and drawings, 33 artists from countries like South Korea, Iran, Mauritius, United States of America, Canada, Ecuador, and India have put together an exhibition titled ‘WE’.

Curated by academic researchers Baishali Ghosh and Rajarshi Sengupta, the exhibition explores meaning of identities in today’s world. Explaining the concept, Ghosh, who is also an art historian and works at the University of Hyderabad, tells Metrolife, “The ‘WE’ not only refers to communities, but also draws attention to words like independence, in-betweenness, interaction, intention, and invention.”

In simpler terms, it refers to the different meanings that can be drawn from the word ‘We’. “The word as a social identity is much debated and discussed in the scholarly practices. There have been contestation over the legitimacy of communities. This exhibition is an attempt to explore the shifting ideas and identities of an individual and the collective,” she says.

While the word ‘WE’ stands for togetherness, it also stands for “contradictions and unsettlement”. “It points towards a search — a search of belongings, communities and also longs for a sense of return,” she adds, referring to the individual’s identity that becomes a collective part of ‘we’.

Grouping themselves into six teams, the artists took nine months to design six installations – ‘Naqsh’, ‘Excerpts from Our All Wet Talk’, ‘Wee-Arc’, ‘Dining Together’, ‘Twin Paradox’ and ‘Anthology of Unknowingly Yours’.

According to Ghosh, the artists including Bijay Nath, Jagadeesh Reddy, Hwang Soonwon and Cynthia Bodenhorst have tried to use the medium of art to give shape to their idea of ‘we’.

While radium lights and sound have been used in ‘Wee-Arc’, ‘Twin Paradox’ made of wood and sand stone blocks have been used to depict the paradox of image and impressions using cloth, organic colours, iron stands and printing bed.

Emphasising that the art exhibition is the first of her attempts to expand her research project, she says, “A graphic book will be next.” The exhibition at Korean Cultural Centre, Lajpat Nagar IV is on view till September 10 from 11 am to 5.30 pm.