Gallery OED Courtyard (Kochi, India). 10.12.2018
Ashish Sahoo, Gagan Singh, Kush Badhwar, Muskaan Singh, Niroj Sathpathy, Priyank Gothwal, Priyesh Gothwal, Shashikant Mohanty, Sonam Chaturvedi, Sujit Mallik. Curated by Jasone Miranda-Bilbao in collaboration with Akansha Rastogi and Paribartana Mohanty.
8x4. The Flowers will Start Flowering Gallery OED Courtyard
8x4 is a mobile exhibition space that consists of a piece of MDF and houses group exhibitions. Its surface is a projecting site and an interface, a loving, bare host, and spatial configuration that can implode or explode, stretch or contract infinitely. A contingent way of thinking.
8x4. The flowers will start flowering is the first exhibition of 8x4. An ongoing project that curiously questions the love affair between art and politics and explores what kind of relation it is. Each artwork, element, proposal, loop and instance that constitute the exhibition, is an attempt at unfolding the abstraction of what forms our understanding of reality. A presentation of referred and deferred objects that lays bare our entanglements between natural, cultural, urban, architectural, and mediatic processes.
A demand on art to openly declare what it does and take on a representational role as a responsible conveyer of ‘messages’ that inform a public and social sphere about morality and justice, seems dangerous and a contagious position more than ever before. In his book ‘Semblance and Event’ contemporary Canadian philosopher Brian Massumi points out that, placing demands on art to behave like other forms of production can be a way of curtailing the political potential of aesthetics and an injunction against a kind of experimentation that expands and contracts in ways that fit another space; one that generates new conditions and that as a generative force it could be vigorously dissenting. With the turning away from the idea of the creative reinvention of the self and notions of personal responsibility, towards a socius that is unwittingly fictional, the old dichotomy of good/bad returns. This strengthening of the idea that art is a higher ground of cultural dissemination, is a chilling reminder of the morality presided upon by elite powers in the past. In the context of this one might ask, is the current trend of ‘socially engaged art’ a step toward the making of a fairer more democratic society, or a form of social control?
Jasone Miranda-Bilbao
Akansha Rastogi @hangerforthepasserby
Paribartana Mohanty (www.paribartanamohanty.wordpress.com)
8x4. The Flowers will Start Flowering detail of the installation
Left to right Niroj Sathpathy Nala Ka Saur, 2016. Plywood, clay, fevicol, rice husk, spherical mirror, LED light, egg tray cardboard and sea shells. Ashish Sahoo Gods and Alliens, 2018. Unique black and white C-type silver gelatine print and ink drawing. 10x15". Made in collaboration with Abhishekh Mukherjee. Gagan Singh The Times are Cruel, or Rather I Become My Own Meal, 2018. Two site specific drawings, hand cut-out made with pen, ink and paper.Shashikant Mohanty Blackish Corner, 2018. Oil on canvas. Sujit Mallik Moonwalk Again, 2016. Welded iron. Prototype shoes with sharp teeth-like edges underneath created to be worn and walk with and feel the ground. Kush Badhwar Found Letter, date unknown. Muskaan Singh Kaadu-Kohra, 2017. Clay and hay. The flowers will start flowering, 2017. Poem written directly on the MDF board. A sentence of this poem was borrowed as the title of the exhibition. Priyesh Gothwal from the series House Plan 'Floor Plan', 2017. Two sets of drawings made of typewritten text, waterproof ink and pen on tracing paper. 8.5x5x5" and 8.5x8.5". Priyank Gothwal from the series Fence 'Images of Distances, Times', 2016. Black and white digital photograph on archival paper. 14x11". An extract of a larger project that includes photographs of fences surrounding the artist university and references of 19th century historical moments taken by other photographers displayed alongside coordinates that establish their exact location. Sonam Chaturvedi from the series Lost and Found Memories, 2017. Archival print on paper. 5x7.5". Originally designed to be displayed alongside sound recorded at the location where the rock was found in Mumbai (https://vimeo.com/229109481).
Installation view at Gallery OED Courtyard
Sala Rekalde (Bilbao, Spain). 22.02.2019
Ashish Sahoo, Gagan Singh, Muskaan Singh, Niroj Sathpathy, Priyank Gothwal, Priyanka Govil, Priyesh Gothwal, Shashikant Mohanty, Sonam Chaturvedi, Sujit Mallik, Tapan Moharana. Comisionada por Jasone Miranda-Bilbao en colaboración con Akansha Rastogi y Paribartana Mohanty.
In February 2019 the exhibition travelled to gallery Sala Rekalde (Bilbao, Spain) where it expanded to include new works and new artists
8x4 es una pieza de material MDF tamaño estándar 8x4 pies (243 x 122 cm) cuya superficie es un espacio de proyección e interfaz. Una anfitriona pura y cariñosa, y una configuración espacial que tiene el poder de explosionar e implosionar, estirarse o contraerse infinitamente. Un planteamiento elástico y una forma de pensar móvil y contingente.
8x4. The flowers will start flowering (Las flores empezarán a florecer) es la primera exposición de 8x4. Un proyecto abierto que cuestiona con curiosidad el romance entre el arte y la política, explorando que tipo de relación desean. Cada trabajo, elemento, propuesta, lazo, o instancia que constituye la exposición, es un intento al desplegamiento de la abstracción que supone nuestra relación con la realidad. Una presentación de objetos referidos y diferidos que exponen nuestros enredos con lo natural, cultural, urbano, arquitectónico, y los procesos mediáticos.
Pedir que el arte declare abiertamente lo que hace y adopte una función representacional, como responsable de la transmisión de ‘mensajes’ que informan al público y la esfera social sobre la moralidad y la justicia, es una posición peligrosa; todavía hoy mas contagiosa que antes. En su libro ‘Semblance and Event’ el filosofo canadiense Brian Massumi apunta que, “pedir que el arte se comporte como otras formas de producción, puede ser una forma de reducir el potencial político de la estética, y un mandato contra un tipo de experimentación que se expande y contrae en formas que se ajustan a otro espacio, que genera condiciones nuevas y que como fuerza creativa, podría ser
vigorosamente disidente”. Con el rechazo de la idea de la invención creativa del individuo y nociones de responsabilidad personal y la adopción de un socius que es inconscientemente ficticio, regresa otra vez la vieja dicotomía de lo bueno y lo malo. El fortalecimiento de la idea de que el arte es un campo de diseminación cultural superior, es un recuerdo escalofriante de la moralidad presidida en el pasado por la elite en el poder. En este contexto podríamos preguntar, ¿es la tendencia actual del ‘arte comprometido socialmente’ un paso hacia una sociedad mas justa y democrática, o una forma de control social?.
Jasone Miranda-Bilbao
View of the installation at Sala Rekalde
Left to right Left to right Niroj Sathpathy Untitled, 2013-2018. Objects (dolls) rescued from dumps and markets in Delhi. Nala Ka Saur, 2016. Plywood, clay, fevicol, rice husk, spherical mirror, LED light, egg tray cardboard and sea shells. Shashikant Mohanty Blackish Corner, 2018. Oil on canvas, size 18.5x11.5”. Gagan Singh The Times are Cruel, or Rather I Become My Own Meal, 2018. Two site specific drawings, hand cut-out made with pen, ink and paper. Sonam Chaturvedi from the series Lost and Found Memories, 2017. Archival print on paper. 5x7.5". Originally designed to be displayed alongside sound recorded at the location where the rock was found in Mumbai (https://vimeo.com/229109481). Ashish Sahoo from the series Gods and Alliens, 2018. Unique black and white C-type silver gelatine print and ink drawing. 12x18" made in collaboration with Abhishekh Mukherjee. Muskaan Singh The flowers will start flowering, 2017. Poem written on the MDF board. A sentence of this poem was borrowed as the title of the exhibition. Priyanka Govil Untitled, 2016. Biro and pastels on paper, different sizes. Tapan Mohrana A Hurd of Ideas, 2018. Clay objects various sizes. Priyank Gothwal from the series Fence 'Images of Distances, Times', 2016. Black and white digital photograph on archival paper. 14x11". An extract of a larger project that includes photographs of fences surrounding the artist university and references of 19th century historical moments taken by other photographers displayed alongside coordinates that establish their exact location. Priyesh Gothwal from the series House Plan 'Floor Plan', 2017. Two sets of drawings made of typewritten text, waterproof ink and pen on tracing paper. 8.5x5x5" and 8.5x8.5". Ashish Sahoo from the series Gods and Alliens, 2018. 12x18". Shashikant Mohanty Cicularize, 2018. Oil on canvas, size 18.5x11.5”. Sujit Mallik Moonwalk Again, 2016. Welded iron and photograph. Prototype shoes with sharp teeth-like edges underneath created to be worn and walk with and feel the ground.
