Hope is a spell, its evocation varied to the conjurer. It is as constructed as it is conclusive, as self-effacing as self-reliant. In The River Turns Before the Ocean, we bring together an eclectic curation of artists whose visual languages are seeded in the act of emerging, of breaking through, in the highest need for potent and visceral expression when faced with rising pressures. Our presentation includes Atul Dodiya’s atmospheric landscapes on canvas, Shrimanti Saha’s narrative episodes on paper, Faiza Butt’s androgynous portrait, Anju Dodiya’s theatrical shaped mattress, Sumedh Rajendran’s personage wood sculptures, Sudhir Patwardhan’s slice-of-life paintings, Shilpa Gupta’s light installation and Jagannath Panda’s arresting avian protagonist.
These artworks thread together to form a repertoire of experience in which one might contemplate the self as self, the self as other, the self in time or the self in place. These vivid, intellectual excursions are a timely exercise in renouncing self-doubt for actualizations, for making note of the present in terms of the past and future, tinting reality with perceptions riddled with dystopic daydreams and a strong desire to tether to the security of belonging.