New exhibition in Delhi explore shared histories and meaning of home

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An upcoming art exhibition, “MOOL”, will bring together 20 artists from across South Asia to examine how personal memory, family histories and shared cultural inheritances shape our understanding of home.

The group exhibition, presented by art gallery Exhibit320 and curated by arts educator and researcher Shaleen Wadhwana, will open at Bikaner House on August 6.

Featuring paintings, photography, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, embroidery, printmaking, archival material and installations, the exhibition traces its origins to “The Sindhu Project”, an initiative by artists Mahwish Chishty and Gunjan Chawla Kumar.

The project emerged from conversations between the two artists in the United States in 2016 on history, home, family, community and belonging before the drawing of modern national borders.

Their travels to archaeological sites such as Taxila, Harappa, Mohenjodaro, Sanghol, Dholavira, Lothal and Rakhigarhi informed a body of work inspired by the Indus Valley Civilisation and the Sindhu River.

Initially exhibited separately in India and Pakistan, the works have been reunited as part of “MOOL”, which expands the dialogue through the participation of 18 additional artists from across South Asia.

“South Asia is not an easy term to define because there is a painful gap between those who carelessly drew its cartographic boundaries without ever visiting the region and those who carry its meaning and live its reality… The reality of this region must acknowledge that artworks are meeting where artists may never get to meet.

“As long as we remember that there is no one defined ‘we’, the capacity for pluralistic, nuanced thought can prevail â¿¿ which is the defining testament to the diversity of this region. With this, MOOL aims to hold history accountable to its present, and to its future through you. The viewer,” said the curator in a statement.

The exhibition is organised into four thematic sections: ‘Family inherited & chosen’, ‘Emotional cartography’, ‘The body and its object biographies’, and ‘Home in script’.

It explores how photographs, landscapes, textiles, language, domestic objects and inherited traditions continue to shape identities across generations and geographies.

Participating artists include Arpita Akhanda, Ashfika Rahman, Ashmina Ranjit, Bunu Dhungana, Chathuri Nissansala, Chudamani Clowes, Deena Pindoria, Hema Shironi, Mariam Suhail, Naira Mushtaq, Nilima Sheikh, Reena Saini Kallat, Riya Chandwani, Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Tayeba Begum Lipi, Wahida Ahmed, Yasmin Jahan Nupur and Zarina.

A key feature of the exhibition is the display of personal artefacts from each participating artist’s family, many of which will be shown publicly for the first time. Presented alongside the artworks, these objects seek to extend conversations around migration, inheritance, language, community and belonging.

“A gallery has the responsibility to present work that challenges familiar ways of looking at the world. With ‘MOOL’, each artist speaks from a distinct context, allowing difference, contradiction and shared experience to exist side by side.

“That curatorial confidence is rare, and therefore explains why this exhibition deserved to be presented in the way it has been,” said Rasika Kajaria, founder and director of Exhibit320.

The art show will come to a close on August 13.

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