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The Promised Land (Studio 1)
A photograph is an escape – a moment captured that allows us to elude the monotony of daily life. Shooting an image frames a fantasy, a desire to enjoy that which has gone in the past, oftentimes becoming the wardrobe that leads us to Narnia. These are photographs that present us that vivid and surreal fantasy, a world of promise and desire that we all seek, that we all long for. It is a landscape of love, a staircase to heaven, for when we see Sohrab Hura’s River (2005) or Ketaki Sheth’s Man Under Flyover (2015), we are transported to a vivacious composition that revels in the reality of life. We witness a landscape of celebration, a dwelling that negates our economic, social, political, and religious differences.
What we have is a topography that calls out to us; it is a map of belongings, such as Baptist Coelho’s Presence #1 (1997) and Dayanita Singh’s Dream Villa (28) (2006-08) that seeks us out.
It is an inviting moment of rest that allows us to scan the horizon; a pedestal, where Raghu Rai’s Self Portrait, Mumbai (2019) and Madhya Pradesh (1982) overlooks a geography of opportunities. There, in its scattering, lies excitement, enthusiasm, and an eagerness to live life to the fullest. It is simultaneously a quieting meditation, a feeling that restores calm and tranquility, when we look at Shumon Ahmed’s Manzil (2017) or Shilpa Gupta’s Half a Sky (2019).
It is a candid realisation that stops us in our bustling, overly busy surroundings, demanding our moment of relaxation.
Or perhaps it is an otherworldly, ethereal summon – a call to arms with Anirudh Acharya’s Musica Universalis (2017) that lands us onto a terrain that extends infinitely; it is the promised land, an area of light that breaks down definition. It is the reserve that waits for us, always and forever. -
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Baptist Coelho
Presence #1
(Maheshwar- Madhya Pradesh), 1997
9 x 13.6 in -
Shumon Ahmed
Manzil, 2017
30 x 30 in -
Anirudh Acharya
Untitled II, 2017
24.08 x 18.98 in -
Anirudh Acharya
Musica Universalis, 2017
23.6 x 20.3 in
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Sohrab Hura
River, 2005
16 x 20 in -
Raghu Rai
Self Portrait, Mumbai, 2019
24 x 34 in -
Raghu Rai
Madhya Pradesh, 1982
24 x 34 in -
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