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Saira Ansari
kanchi Mehta
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 | | | | | | 17.05.2012
Conversations in Hyper Reality At Experimenter, Kolkata, India Kolkata has always been the cultural vortex in India. With the invaluable contribution of the Rabindranath Tagore and his contemporaries, the city has established a strong base of fine art with institutions such as Viswa Bharati, Shantiniketan, dedicated to art, culture, languages, etc. Kolkata was the capital of India during the British Rule, and therefore has a lingering influence of the way of life. In India, Mumbai and Delhi have always been the centers of art and activity, with an array of Modern and Contemporary galleries as well as alternative programs, whereas Kolkata in the East was reflective of the Modern artists and Institutions. This city has a very prolific and knowledgeable society, with the ability to absorb and debate forward issues. | | |  | | Installation View, Saira Ansari, Courtesy Experimenter | | | | | Three years ago, the opening of Experimenter, a gallery dedicated to promote contemporary art and new media in Kolkata, transformed the art scene in the East. “The idea was never to break through the rigidity in the school of thought in the Kolkata art scene, it was always about doing what is reflecting of the contemporary scene in the country. We knew Kolkata had the appetite to discuss it, debate it, contextualize it and live with it. It was about coexisting and providing a fresh way of looking at things.” Explains Prateek Raja, co-founder of the gallery. Along with his wife, Priyanka Raja, this young and passionate duo has created an exceptional demand and response to new media and conceptual art in the East, pushing the boundaries to keep up with the challenge, engaging the audience in dialogue and newer platforms. | | |  | | Saira Ansari Book of REM, Book of Narratives, Book of TI Digital print on acid free paper 2012 | | | | | They also have initiated programs like the Young Curator’s Hub, one of the first programs that promote and encourage curatorial practice in India. Exhibiting artists from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan as well as Europe, the gallery has extended their program to international arena. Their recent exhibition by Pakistani artist Saira Ansari, “Conversations in Hyper Reality” is a body of work derived from visuals of dreams and hallucinations she has documented from her memory. Through drawings, texts she has recorded vivid imagery, also based on scientific research and studies of dreams and human psychology. | | |  | | Saira Ansari Book of REM, Book of Narratives, Book of TI Digital print on acid free paper 2012 | | | | | Her practice deals with an uncomfortable dialogue, which blurs the line of sanity and waking life. Due to this surreal context of her work, the exhibition does not seem cohesive at first glance. However, as the viewer engages in the work it evolves into a labyrinth of stories and visual allegories, which exist in parallel realities. The seepage of the real in this hyper reality often adds an absurd logic that helps direct hysterical fantasies to a stable lull, only to resume it at yet another imaginary, fantastical conversation. | | |  | | Saira Ansari Untitled Crayon on wall 2012 | | | | | A glimpse into the subconscious abyss of her complex mind, Saira Ansari has exposed us to her experience of lucid dreaming, tonic immobility, nightmares, and letters of communication that represent physical and mental displacement. On View at Experimenter, Kolkata 25 April – 31 May 2012 | | | |
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