NEW DELHI.- The Gujral Foundation in association with Outset India, opened its first exhibition of the year last week with multi-disciplinary artist Remen Chopra W. Van Der Vaart titled ‘Memory’s Cut: Its Deep Embrace’ at 24 Jor Bagh, New Delhi, an experimental space that offers artists the opportunity to create site-specific projects and a unique environment for the public to experience art. Supported by King’s Court by DLF, the exhibition showcases new works by the artist.
In this exhibition, the artist transforms 24 Jor Bagh into a series of personal spaces that encapsulate her memories of home. She creates site-specific works using varied media such as photography, drawing, sculpture, textiles and sound, to reflect upon personal and familial histories of migration. Her work is a unique assemblage of intimate moments, poetry and personal objects that were passed on matrilineally, from one generation to the other. She explores the cartography of memory and how non-linear narratives are fabricated out of scattered fragments. The artist recalls family stories of Tehran, Rawalpindi and Shimla, as narrated to her by her grandmother. Van Der Vaart maps the history of these spaces using multi-layered artworks that interweaves real and endorsed time.
The artist is inspired by architecture and constructs complex monochromatic, performance- based montages that draw significantly from the aesthetics of theatre. She meticulously layers photographs and drawings with glass or mulmul, which capture a fleeting moment in time. The figures are staged, sometimes in transition, evoking a sense of mystery as well as nostalgia. The use of light, symmetry, geometry and patterns, play a key role in Van Der Vaart’s artistic practice.
Poetry from her grandmother’s archive and personal objects of the artist that form repositories of the memories of home punctuate the entire exhibition. Van Der Vaart’s work bridges the past, present and future, where time is seen as a continuous loop of incidences.
“The exhibition is a poignant chronicle of the artist's life that interweaves personal archives, notions of home and memory. Her work is a unique assemblage of intimate moments, poetry and personal objects that were passed on from one generation to the other.” – Reha Sodhi (Curatorial Advisor)
"I am very pleased to announce my solo show in Delhi presented by the Gujral Foundation. I will be transforming 24 Jor Bagh into a personal space that will encapsulate memories of home. Viewers can look forward to a unique assemblage of multi layered artworks that will evoke notions of home." - Remen Chopra W. Van Der Vaart
