With the second wave of the pandemic having once again forced us to recede indoors, Experimenter has deftly shifted its robust programming online with three beautiful expositions — Soumya Sankar Bose’s Where the Birds Never Sing at Experimenter, Ballygunge Place; Sahil Naik’s All Is Water, And To Water We Must Return at Experimenter, Ballygunge Place Projects Room; and Julien Segard, A View from Nowhere at Experimenter, Hindustan Road.
By Soumya Sankar Bose. Pictures courtesy: The gallery and artists
Bose’s Where the Birds Never Sing holds forth perspectives of the infamous Marichjhapi massacre in the Sundarbans through a mix of research, interviews and by delving into forgotten memories as he touches upon complex socio-political issues and is supported by Magnum Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, India Foundation for the Arts under the Arts Practice Programme and The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (under the aegis of Amol Vadehra Art Grant).
By Sahil Naik. Pictures courtesy: The gallery and artists
Naik turns to the story of Goa’s water-rattled village of Curdi and strings together three phases of time with regard to its submergence. While he looks at the stories of the generation that saw Curdi before its submergence, he also refers to the effects of climate change and how the temperature of the water affects the landscape and the structures and how nature serves as a marker of history in this case.
Segard’s work seems to hold up a mirror to our times of having been forced to spend with ourselves as he draws inspiration from his solitude of spending much of last year at a remote location in France. Segard examines and connects the within and without by reflecting a sliver of his own thoughts as he uses the familiarity of his cabin as both a source of memory and as a space reminding him of the ephemeral.
All three exhibitions are on till June 30 and can be accessed virtually at Experimenter’s online viewing rooms.