[accordion title= »ABOUT THE EXHIBITION »]
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Felix Frachon is delighted to present an exhibtion of Apnavi Thacker:
Travails of the Wandering MemorySeed
The MemorySeed, a fictional pod, contains a selection of works spanning three series: Drawing Breath (2012), Hiraeth (2014) and Ecologies of Absence (2016).
The different domains of botany, ecology, memory and the Anthropocene overlap with each other to build layers, forming micro and macro views that are both nebulous and acerbic mirroring the functions of human memory.
Drawing Breath LXVI and LXVII, intimate sculptures rise from reverse anthropomorphism to become cohesive ‘ultraforms’, becoming progressively dark reflections of adaptive invasive nature.
In contrast, the delicate drawings and collages drawn from the Hiraeth (2014) series, tackle Swiss national identity with collages drawn upon maps of territory indicating political borders taken over by non-native species- suggesting open and closed borders and their ensuing trade-offs.The three drawings in this series, in contrast, explore the technological vis a vis the organic-suggesting the economic conditions of migrant labor.
Currencies of Absence (2016), a site – specific installation, is framed through explorations carried out at the Bombay Port Trust garden in Colaba, Mumbai and around the artist’s home in Geneva, Switzerland; unfolding into a complex work formed over time and distance. Here in its second iteration, the installation retains its foundation suggesting the commodification of nature while drawing upon history to reflect colonial trade routes using objects that simultaneously reflect memory through form. Currencies of Absence questions the human considerations of nature while bringing to the fore the lives of the flora and fauna within the space; emphasizing life, death, the marginalized, the unnoticed and the forgotten, the visible and the hidden
Lastly, a provocative piece of visual symphony, the video Cadavre Exquis is named after a surrealist parlor game, where participants create drawings and collages collaboratively, passing on the drawing for the next participant to complete. A game that required the act of secrecy, where the next participant could not see the previous drawing, worked as an intention to unearth and free the unconscious.
Much like the game, Cadavre Exquis unearths the surrealistic elements of a large scale fish market in the heart of Mumbai, at Sassoon Docks; indicting the aestheticization of the ‘dead things in the water’ (or formaldehyde, as the case may be) as an object without a purpose. The inclusion of labor that cleans, strips, skins and sorts these fish, underlines labor and its conditions, and places consumption’s mute victims in a mellowed palette no less difficult than its reality.
Apnavi Thacker – Mumbai 2016
[/accordion]ABOUT THE ARTIST
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in 1976 in Bombay and brought up in Geneva, Apnavi Thacker has benefited from two vastly different cultures.
For the last decade, she lived in Bombay, drawing from the frenetic pace of the city and its people as stimulus for her work. An autodidact, her practice revolves around a composite of issues: displacement, social conditioning, environmental concerns, explorations of memory and the idea of “home” and how this synthesis interacts with the construct of urban spaces and the socio-economic structure of our times.
She recently relocated to Switzerland and is currently working between New York and Switzerland.
Selected solo-shows:
2016
Travails of the Wandering MemorySeed, Galerie Felix Frachon, Brussels
2011
Dog Eared : a pop up library, for art students to be able to acquire books without the use of money as a form of exchange
2010
Domus Vulgus , The Guild New York, New York
Domus Vulgus ,Art Asia Miami fair, The Guild New York
2006
Run While You Can ,Chatterjee and Lal, Bombay
Selected group shows:
2014
Raving Disco Dolly On A Rock ‘N’ Roll Trolley, Envoy Enterprises, New York
Labyrinth Of Hopes, curated by Anne Maniglier, W113, New Delhi
2013
Considering Collage, Jhaveri Contemporary, Bombay
W113 curated by Anne Magnilier, New Delhi
Lateral, curated by Heidi Fichtner, Kona, New Delhi
2011
Caution – Children At Work curated by Gitanjali Dang, Mumbai Art Room, Mumbai
2010
I Think…Therefore Graffiti, The Guild, Mumbai/New York
2009
Domestic Policy – The South Asian Women’s Creative Collective Annual Show, New York
SELECTED WORKS