Mashindia : Shilpa Gupta part of the online exhibition "LIVING THE NEW NORMAL : IN THESE EXCEPTIONAL TIMES"

Shilpa Gupta, Half a Sky, Diasec mounted photograph, 19.5" x 26”, 2017

CURATORIAL NOTE BY DR. ARSHIYA MANSOOR LOKHANDWALA 

“The state of emergency in which we live is not the exception but the rule.” - Walter Benjamin

The new normal is anything but ordinary. The world as we know it has changed forever since December 31st, 2019.  Most of us have never experienced an epidemic let alone a pandemic of an epic nature that affected every corner of the earth. The future has never looked more uncertain with no definitive cure or end in sight, leaving with us anxious, disoriented, overwhelmed, and paranoid. Sigmund Freud a noted psychiatrist has defined this as the “uncanny” or “unheimlich” in German when what is familiar somehow appears estranged or foreign, wherein social distancing, facemasks, lockdowns, quarantine or curfews have become the new norm. The exhibition Living the New Normal explores the work of 5 Indian women artists that allude to the extraordinary but incongruous moment that we are experiencing highlighted through their various bodies of work which refers to the current zeitgeist. 

Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala is an art historian and curator [Ph. D. Cornell University] Master’s of Arts in Curating, Goldsmith College, London], and the founding director/curator of Lakeeren Gallery, Mumbai, India. Her recent museum curatorial projects include Beyond Transnationalism: The Legacy of Post –Independent from India at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai [April 2017] and Raza Foundation, Delhi [January 2017], India Re- Worlded: Seventy Years of Investigating a Nation [2017], Given Time: The Gift and Its Offerings [2016], both at Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai.

SHALINI PASSI, FOUNDER, MASH 

"The world stands changed forever. Our everyday rituals, our thoughts and ideas and our very lives have changed. For the next few years till we find a cure and a vaccine for Coronavirus the course of our decisions, actions and plans will depend on the new normal imposed on us"

DR ARSHIYA LOKHANDWALA, CURATOR 

"The lockdown for me has been a moment of great reflection. It has made me truly value what is important to me, and highlight the significance of living in a safer, greener, and peaceful world that is priceless: something to work towards."

MITHU SEN 

"It’s been a strange mix of wistfulness for the erstwhile state of 'normalcy' and a sense of invigoration to work towards something new for a newer world but not without the foreboding horror of living through a pandemic"

PRAJAKTA POTNIS 

"In a lockdown it is imperative to keep eyes wide open and assimilate all that is transpiring. From the helpless migrants forced to walk thousands of kilometres to reach their homes, to the uncertainty that looms over so many. The pandemic and the mismanagement around it, has once again revealed the social divide in our society."

PUSHPAMALA N 

"My lockdown experience personally has been enjoyable, though I am very disturbed about many things going on in the country and the world. I am reading and thinking about everything that has been happening recently and planning a new work around those ideas. I go for long walks in my neighbourhood and work during the day with my assistant in my nearby studio. I cook, read and see films in the evenings, research for my future projects."

ANITA DUBE 

"The lockdown has been a painful experience in watching and understanding the utter disregard for unorganised labour in this country and by this government. The contrast between precarity and privilege shames me into a dark silence that no amount of cooking, reading and resting can alleviate." 

SHILPA GUPTA 

"The laptop has become the studio for now. Besides, I have been making drawings, notes and reading a lot. It’s a totally new rhythm and I feel lucky that being an artist allows one to work from any place. I just opened a work in a container in Copenhagen and am preparing towards an outdoor light work to open in festival in Zurich next month."

To view the exhibition go here: LIVING THE NEW NORMAL : IN THESE EXCEPTIONAL TIMES