Glimpses of artworks on display at the show  
Galleries

This Kolkata exhibition is about the time and labour that go into making art

Ever thought about what goes into making that beautiful canvas or installation? This exhibition gives a glimpse of it.

Subhadrika Sen

Upon entering the Ganges Art Gallery’s monsoon display, you would find framed canvases telling layered stories. Each canvas demands that you stand in front of it for quite some time to understand the process of making it, the intrinsic labour that goes into it, and most of all, the amount of time it took to shape up. Temporal Materialities curated by Rashmee Pal Chouteau honours the process behind the making of each canvas. The exhibition zeroes in on one question – Can material hold time?

According to the curator, “Temporal Materialities brings together practices in which material and process become ways of experiencing time. Surfaces are layered, marked, scraped, constructed, dismantled and rebuilt; gestures are repeated until the act of making itself begins to measure duration.” This group exhibition displays works of six artists, namely Debasish Mukherjee, Megha Joshi, Pooja Iranna, Ruchika Wason Singh, Samindranath Majumdar, and Sheetal Gattani. It was inaugurated by chief guest and art connoisseur Jyoti Vardhan Sonthalia in the presence of gallery director Smita Bajoria and curator Rashmee Pal Chouteau.

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(L-R) Director, Ganges Art Gallery, Smita Bajoria, curator Rashmee Pal Chouteau with chief guest Jyoti Vardhan Sonthalia during the opening of the show.
As development erased the familiar railway colony of Debasish Mukherjee’s hometown, Chhapra in Bihar, that became the point of inspiration to start his works in graphite and acrylic on linen. The canvases depicting abstract mapping are a direct reference to the landscape and memories that once were.
Reconstructing the past, present and a possible future is what defines Ruchika Wason Singh’s works. Her works suggest continuums instead of defining a particular space or narrative. Her layered surfaces position uncertainties, co-existence and possibilities as the main character.
Samindranath Majumdar’s works dig deep into the changing landscape, which brings about an unease and psychological change. Light pastels, earthy browns, and ashy greys form the base colours, which not just highlight the landscape but also the constant dialogue one has with the landscape.
With the festive season knocking on the door, markets will now be full of diyas and solte or cotton wicks. This is the medium which Megha Joshi uses for her canvas, which is made up of hundreds of cotton wicks. Each wick is rolled, dyed, and stuck, making for a repetitive and labour-intensive work. The complete canvas takes a vaginal shape, questioning patriarchy and misogyny.
Pooja Iranna’s urban constructs depict the process of construction, demolition, and reconstruction through layers of pencil blocks, paints, and blocks of colours which look like paint drops. Her artworks question what one loses in the process of development and progress.
Sheetal Gattani relies on the process of layering, scraping, and revealing where colour is repeatedly applied and removed, exposing the underlayers. Her works tend to record light, space, and environment, and thus the texture of the paper and the positioning of the light are equally important to bring out the true essence of her work.

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