A collaborative exhibition titled Come Away put together by GallerySke, Pichvai Tradition & Beyond and PHOTOINK is on view online
The exhibition features two series – Shared Solitude and The Geography Is All Wrong. Artist Anita Khemka and Imran Kokiloo’s ‘Shared Solitude’ was born out of a literal and forced—isolation as a result of a family emergency coinciding with the very unplanned and brutal lockdown, enforced by a political system hell bent on being seen as decisive. It made them question the status quo that we had grown accustomed to and the dichotomy of our daily lives.
During the pandemic, the couple produced Shared Solitude (2020-ongoing)—family portraits staged outside the studio as well as the familiar surroundings of homes. This project thus set out to excavate memory, the joyous and painful, and confronts the universal dilemma of ownership, possession and letting go.
Pallavi Gaur’s ‘The Geography Is All Wrong’ is her dedication to life and to love. “In March 2020, an order for a 21-day lockdown was made with only four hours notice. It displaced thousands of people from their workplaces and homes. In the middle of the night, lone figures carrying hefty bags, sought to make their way home to villages miles away. As everyone struggled to cope with the lockdown, I too was trying to manage my anxiety. As witness to a crisis that manifested itself in an extreme way, it made me withdraw inwards and think about the meaning of a ‘home’, “ says Gaur.
It brought to her mind the image of how children always walk to school but run back home. Gaur asked herself questions that she otherwise evaded, if not adamantly escaped. The artist took refuge in some old prints that were lying around. She looked at them in a new light. Working with memory, cutting through landscapes only to make new memories; it was a renewal of her promise to life, it was a comforting process. These photo collages present an image of possibilities and permanence, of endless horizons.
“I hope this work can rekindle in you an image of your idea of home, so you can create it,” she adds.
The exhibition can be viewed on the website of PHOTOINK
