THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE
Humans have always sought comfort in form. We trace shapes in clouds, find faces in shadows, and read meaning into patterns. But when form is stripped away, we are
unmoored. We search for symmetry, we try to rebuild what has been denied. Abstraction
reminds us thatperception is elastic, that the eye can unlearn and the mind can see
beyond the constraints of form.
How, then, do we speak of absence? If the figure is gone, what remains? Perhaps it is
the presence of absence that invites us to see ourselves anew, to dwell in the space beyond representation and image. The distillation of shapes, forms, and structures drawn from reality embodies the “abstract”. In this realm, imagination crystallises into formlessness and thought finds rhythm beyond the familiar. Here we find revelation through deprivation, the hidden meanings and structures that underpin perception itself.
This show asserts that abstraction is vital to opening spaces for reflection, intuition, and access to the unseen facets of experience. Embedded in geometries, grids, and color fields are the stories we don’t even know we tell ourselves, questions we didn’t even know to ask.
In that context, The Presence of Absence is an invitation to dwell in the ether, to lose
oneself in formlessness, to find the meaning that emerges not from what is shown, but
from what is withheld. A fresh exploration of the possibilities of absentia.
- Kunal Shah, Curator