The Impossible Bouquet

Internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist Raghava KK exhibits his cutting edge series of impossible bouquets. The artist continues his pioneering encounter with the biggest disruption to the creative world – Artificial Intelligence, and uses the tool to create this ebullient series.

Marking the momentous occasion of the foundation’s 15th year, the Gujral Foundation presents ‘The Impossible Bouquet’ in association with Volte Art Projects, a solo exhibition by internationally renowned multidisciplinary artist Raghava KK, showcased at the iconic 24 Jor Bagh, from February 10 to 16.

With an extraordinary new wave of word-to-imagery Al disrupting the art world, the exhibition engages with prompt engineering to ask the question, “Can we shape our collective futures using this disruption as a springboard?”

Raghava KK exhibits his cutting-edge series of impossible juxtapositions as a continuation of his pioneering encounter with AI. The image of the bouquet – a gift, a transient composition, a vulnerable arrangement – unifies the show. What is usually perceived as a symbol of aesthetic beauty, thoughtfully arranged and pleasing, comes to life in the artist’s series in the form of strange, even impossible, material: recycled plastic, food, intimate parts of the body, hand-blown glass fused with metal.

The original series was inspired by the Dutch tradition of still life where flowers belonging to different seasons, which can never coexist, are collected into a painted bouquet. Similarly, this playful yet provocative and intimate encounter between human and machine produces paintings of striking compositions that bring together impossible combinations: substances, arrangements, geometries. While giving up control to the machine makes for anxiety, the ambiguity in the process is mirrored in the form of beautiful classical objects made out of private, mostly hidden, impossible material.

“I have a passion for the of -beat and the on-trend. We must always look toward the future, immersing ourselves in the radical and revolutionary. As a concept curator, I am constantly seeking new ways of learning and transforming that allow us to support experimental and innovative projects by curious creators. It is very important to push ourselves into the space of enquiry in order to prompt critical dialogue about art and the future.” says Feroze Gujral, Founder and Director, The Gujral Foundation.

Raghava KK has pioneered a groundbreaking body of diverse works that explore transcendence through the lens of the current digital era. Featured on CNN’s list of ten fascinating thinkers, authors and provocateurs in 2010, Raghava’s work traverses traditional forms of painting, installation and performance, while his practice embraces new media (artificial intelligence, neuro-feedback, biohacking, board and video games, crypto currencies etc), to express post-human contemporary realities.

“Can we shape our collective futures using this beautiful disruption? This playful series explores the outcome of engaging in real dialogue with AI. My work poses a crucial question about the future of art; can the embodied human limitations of flesh and bone respond creatively, and without fear, to the advances in creative image-making made by bodiless ‘software’?” explores Raghava KK, the artist

When: February 10 – 16

Where: 24 Jor Bagh