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Fragmented Memories
Fragmented Memories In his Fragmented Memories, Abul Kalam Azad brings together memories from different years in layered images. The memories are personal, ancestral and also political. They overlap and influence one another. This results in intriguing images in which the years intertwine and there are no clear-cut timelines.I think you could compare it to dreams;…
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Painting grass
Painting grass Painting grass is what Priti Vadakkath does with great dedication, filling canvases, each several metres long. This is what she has to say about it: “The Shola Grasslands series is a continuing body of work directly inspired by the vast landscape of Udumbanchola, Idukki, (Kerala), where I live and work on my farm.…
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Parliament of Ghosts
Parliament of Ghosts Ibrahim Mahane first developed the concept of Parliament of Ghosts in his hometown of Tamale, Ghana. He has since staged it in various locations, including Manchester (2019) and the Venice Biennale in 2023, adapting it each time to the political and economic history of the city. Partly coinciding with a version staged…
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A happy union
A happy union Kulpreet Singh creates works (films, paintings) centred on the practice of farmers burning stubble in their fields in the Punjab and the air pollution this causes across a wide area, as far as New Delhi. It is an annual phenomenon that sparks widespread social discontent.What I wish to focus on here, however,…
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A reflection
A reflection In her installation ‘Black Gold’ at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Yasmin Jahan Nupur has charted the economic significance of black pepper throughout the centuries. Along with this significance, she has also traced the trade routes by land and sea, and the colonial domination by Europe of overseas territories where this ‘black gold’ was found.…
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Out for a stroll
Out for a stroll Out for a stroll in Kochi, enjoying a welcome break from all the impressions I’d gathered during my visit to the contemporary art biennial. Incidentally, it’s an event that, to my delight, attracts a large young audience from Kerala and other parts of India. Photos of the week: Kochi, Kerala, India…
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Transformation
Transformation Medical stretchers and autopsy tables, assembled and transformed into the building blocks of an installation that evokes the atmosphere of a mortuary.It is particularly the painted stretchers, suspended vertically from a white wall, that catch my eye. With their strong forms and beautiful colours, they have been transformed into true works of art. Photos…
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Footnotes
Footnotes Things can turn out that way: the footnotes are far more interesting than the work to which they are attached. Photos of the week: K.K.Muhamed, Foot Notes, and Remembering the Present, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India 2026
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Colour Speaks Politics
Colour Speaks Politics Captions accompanying exhibited artworks can be enlightening, but all too often they degenerate into a maze of pompous, convoluted phrasing. Here is an example from the caption accompanying Hasseena Suresh’s work: “Unlike the chronological border of figures glorified in the narratives of mythology, Hasseena traces the genealogy of glorification in the moments…
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Haunting images
Haunting images In Still, Anja Ibsch’s installation at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (see last week), I was also struck by these unsettling images of children’s faces. One was printed on a metal tin, and the other was faintly visible on or behind a glass panel. For the rest of the day, their piercing gaze continued to…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
