Visual representations emerged from transcendental realms have produced imaginations distant from reflective realisations. Consequently, visual sensibilities guided by hegemonic metanarratives are deeply connected to the embedded thought process that neither view and understand contradictions nor empower to address it pictorially. It is self-consciousness in the cultural sphere that has resulted in accepting what has been served, or presumably "given".
Vikrant Bhise's art practices stands away from the transcendental metaphysics and questions the logic of self from the position of reflective realisation. This is not a static but a fluid category,- a constantly changing sensorial world through the consciousness towards 'becoming' from simply 'being' where memory and experiences are empathically represented.
Constructing contradictions of perceptions of others through visual representation is an objective involving hetudharma in pictorial representations (the concept of hetudharma is elucidated by the great philosopher Dharmakirti of the fifth century CE aiming at understanding the objectives of representation).
The identity of figures often remains silent in the pictorial exemplifications. Vikrant's works break such inhibitions and empower the figures to reveal their identity. Non-transcendental realms are meant to rupture normative of narrative and imposed hegemonic binaries of the public sphere. The works are drawn from memories and archives. The mode of archive is personal and comes from available perceptions that may not be confined to the so-called official archive.
Figures are in a constant interrogative process thereby the narrative of singularity is set aside to encompass the self-interrogative realms of perceptions and historicity focusing on the recent past of the depressed masses in the urban landscape of Mumbai city. The visuals depart from the romantic admiration of being global, disassociating from any hegemonic self-claims. The artworks address contradictions and normative in contemporary times to set aside embedded presuppositions to dismantle ghettoized perceptions through the lens of Amedkarian thinking and aesthetical practices by using narratives belonging to his personal self and public self, employing figural multiplicities and complexities.
The exhibition is divided into four sections delineating different themes: Narrative and Subversions; Memory and Archive; Constitutional Democracy, Preamble, and Personas; and Toiling Masses.
- Dr. Y.S. Alone
