INDIA ART FAIR 2024

Central to the presentation is Monika Correa’s monochrome triptych, Banyan Tree (2023). Correa is known for her innovative weaving method, whereby abandoning typical processes, she adds extra weft. Here such a technique creates ripples in these woven textiles and liberates sections of black thread to create an impression similar to that of the dangling prop roots of a banyan tree.

In image, Correa’s work chimes with Harminder Judge’s layered plaster sculpture, Untitled (night body) (2023) and in form, it resonates with Sayan Chanda’s three golden tapestries which hang next to a rare watercolour by Mrinalini Mukherjee. Mukherjee’s works on paper proved a respite from the labour intensive weaving that brought to life her astounding sculptures. Adopting a similar process, Chanda weaves by hand to create the anthropomorphic forms he considers charms to ward off the evil-eye.Their ethereal presence, and subtle glints of gold pick up neighbouring works by Kamruzzaman Shadhin and Shezad Dawood.

The jute twists and brass body of Shadhin’s sculpture, Convergence (2023), materials from his village in Bangladesh, are used to create impressions of roots, tree barks, tilled farmlands, riverbeds, and harvest residues. Dawood’s textile collage, The Trouble with Lichen 4 (2019), depicts a species of lichen moss specific to Fogo Island in Canada. Part of a series made in collaboration with embroiderers and knitters from the area, these works are as much about the process as they are the life forms conjured.

Closeby are Amina Ahmed’s works on paper that draw on textiles spanning Uzbek, Afghan, Kutchi, Kashmiri, Palestinian, and African traditions. Made on hand-dyed paper, the finesse of her line and isolation of pattern and geometry shares much with Lubna Chowdhary’s Switch series that runs along the outer wall of the booth. A hybrid of hand and computer generation, a digitally drawn grid provides the infrastructure for the placement of small circular stickers, meticulously hand painted by Chowdhary, as well as pigmented lines.