SOHRAB HURA

The exhibition features memories from television-watching, memes from popular culture, social media algorithms, events in political history, intimate moments with loved ones. Breaking through the frenetic numbness of the image- saturated world, where they are often consumed rapidly and without any reflection, Hura’s quest for slowness, tactility and softness materialises through his pastels, gouaches and oil paintings. On view will also be a new body of work titled Timelines, a collection of acrylic paintings on cardboard boxes, which present overlapping vignettes. Sifting through the entanglements of past events, scenes both real and imagined, pop culture and news references, the work also questions what constitutes majoritarian history. Timelines brings attention to how changing the timelines of stories can alter the stories themselves—much like the boxes that can be folded inside out to form new combinations. Taking a step back from the heaviness of photography, Hura explores the element of meandering which these mediums allow while also offering a reassuring affirmation that he exists in the real space through the physical act of making. Hura’s works resist linear narratives which draw from how he looks at the world—experiences interspersed with humour, grief, satire, violence and melancholy.

Hura’s new film Disappeared will also have its debut in India in the exhibition, where a seemingly distorted single shot of a forest tent is transformed through sound, colour, and texture into a near-narrative mystery that reflects on the malleability of perspective.

Sohrab Hura (b. 1981) lives and works in New Delhi, India.