7 countries’ artist exhibiting Home Spun at the Devi Art Foundation

This festive season, Girish Shahane is curating the show, “Home Spun” at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, India beginning from the 27^th August upto 27^th December 2011.

This exhibition is showcasing the works of more than 36 artists from 5 countries, starting from the host country India to its neighbours Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Oman and U.K. Seven new commissions are executed especially for this exhibition, featuring a significant large-scale sculptural works, to name a few Suboth Gupta’s My Mother and Me, Rashid Rana’s Desperately Seeking Paradise & Hamra Abba’s In this is a sign of those who Reflect.

 As title suggests, this exhibition is a spin on the idea of home. “Home is a place as well as a state of mind: it has both a locational and emotional dimension.”  In this exhibition the artists have satirized mundane, sedentary existence by producing quirky variations on ordinary objects. They have remade articles connected with daily routine – whether sofa sets, brooms, ceiling fans or typewriters – into rich and strange artefacts. These works are light in mood and for the most part small in scale, working as ensembles rather than stand-alone pieces.

The exhibition also focuses on the physical spaces we inhabit. Whether we inhabit them voluntarily or through compulsion, they can express our personality and define our character. The interrogation of built form in Home Spun brings to life abstract issues of identity, security and conformity through tactile materials such as brick, lace and bamboo. Artists employ the cylinder, cube, and the archetypal house shape in their examination of architectural design and its influence on our lives.

 Each section of Home Spun is accompanied by a short text that reflects on the artworks or uses them as take-off points,   The exhibition encompasses sculpture, painting, photography, digital prints, video, and interactive installations aiming to demonstrate that art can be entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time. 

*img courtsey: Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon. India