RE-CONNECTING, RE-CONSTRUCTING, RE-IMAGINING

The India Art Fair returns after a pandemic-induced hiatus. Aranya picks and discusses the significant works on display.

- Aranya

Light streaming through stencilled cut-outs on an inverted pyramid, in a maze of orphaned letters from a hundred different languages spoken in the subcontinent, formed the shifting illuminated terrain of Ayesha Singh and Abhimanyu Dalal's work inversion, incision, immateriality at the booth presented by Shrine Empire (in collaboration with Space Studio), as part of the 13th edition of the India Art Fair.

This chiaroscuric collision of language and space, a design conveying both distance and intersection, ephemerality and moments of epiphany, seemed to offer an apt metaphor for a thrust towards community across differences, and the need to reconnect at an affective level, after the two-year long hiatus that marked this edition.

From the 28th of April to the 1st of May, the India Art Fair returned in physical form at Delhi's NSIC grounds after delays brought on by the pandemic, and in the midst of a scorching heat wave. Nevertheless, the excitement to be back together and share a familiar space was palpable amongst artists, collectors, patrons, and gallerists. Marred by pandemic-induced logistical complications and a period of uncertainty, the fair was the ideal opportunity to provide a narrative and bear witness to the transforming world in a meaningful way.