Navjot
dal 20/2/2003 al 5/4/2003
Segnalato da
20/2/2003
Navjot
Talwar Gallery, New York
The sculptural ensemble on exhibit presents monumental but enigmatic human figures bathed in bright indigo. The almost theatrical setting alludes to a performance in progress in which the female figures exude confidence, dynamism and authority in contrast to their leisurely passive male subjects.
In Response To.
Preview and Opening Reception with the Artist
Friday, 21 February, 6 - 8 pm
Talwar Gallery is delighted to announce an exhibition of major sculptural works
by Navjot. The exhibition will open to the public on Friday, February 21, and
will be on view through April 5. This is the artist's first solo exhibition in
the United States.
The sculptural ensemble on exhibit presents monumental but enigmatic human
figures bathed in bright indigo. The almost theatrical setting alludes to a
performance in progress in which the female figures exude confidence, dynamism
and authority in contrast to their leisurely passive male subjects. Carved from
solid blocks of teak wood, their iconic presence and resolute gaze is
instrumental in subverting the narrative of patriarchal dominance and
transcending the modes of art practices. While drawing on India's rich heritage
of sculptural traditions, Navjot rejects the idealized female body persistent
with the male view and imbues the unfeminine and brawny bodies of her women with
stability, tenacity and power.
As eminent art historian and critic Geeta Kapur elicits,
"Navjot has clearly retracked the familiar terrain of social injustice and
violence, transmuting her concerns to the intimate, often hidden private lives
of women. These works are clearly about the language of eroticism, of the male
gaze that still relegates women to sexual object, of hollow, unfulfilled lives
and of female sexuality as the site of as much pain as pleasure. ...Narrative
controversy blends with regional themes and a naturalistic aesthetic in
rough-hewn, agile bodies that are awkwardly and attenuatedly voluptuous. The
figures carved in huge chunks of wood return to and emerge from nature even as
they entrust us with imaginative reassessment of German Expressionist sculpture
and African and Oceanic Art. Original departures and lively open structural
forms have been created as if in appreciation of the power and empathy of tribal
art forms. This in turn lends itself well to the pictorial convention of
communicating the complex thinking and emotion inherent in the feminine
predicament - the subject of carvings. And to testing the limits of making
pathos manifest. In this balance struck between the work as empathic
representation and as autonomous formal creation, lies the essence of its
expression."
Navjot was born in the North Indian city of Meerut in 1949. She completed her
Art education from JJ School of Art in Bombay in 1972. Since participating in
her first International exhibition in 1976 at Zeitgenossische Indische Kunst in
Germany, Navjot's works have been exhibited extensively both at home in India
and abroad. Navjot's works were exhibited in Century City at Tate Modern, London
in 2001; earlier in 1999 she participated in First Fukuoka Triennale in Fukuoka,
Japan; in 1996 her works were included in Inside Out, an exhibition curated by
Geeta Kapur at Middlesborough art gallery in UK and in 1997 in "A Celebration of
Independence" at Mills College art gallery in Oakland, California. Earlier this
year her works were included in the exhibition "Ways of Resisting" at Rabindra
Bhavan in New Delhi, India organized by SAHMAT. Navjot's interest in modes of
art practices and social concerns has allowed her to pursue many collaborative
and cooperative art projects over the years. In 1994 in the aftermath of the
Bombay communal riots she worked in Mumbai with two documentary filmmakers and a
classical vocalist for Links destroyed and rediscovered; in 1998 a sculptural
and video installation with artists from Bastar, Modes of Parallel Practice:
Ways of World making was exhibited at Fukuoka Asian art Museum in Fukuoka,
Japan. Navjot's works are in various public and private collections in Japan,
India and Europe.
Navjot lives and works in Bastar (Central India) and Mumbai, India.
Image: "IN RESPONSE TO...." (Detail), 65" x 32" x 20"
Indigo on wood & PVC pipe with text and herbs 2002
TALWAR GALLERY
108 East 16 Street
New York, NY 10003
212 673 3096