Stories in Stillness

The exhibition,titled “37 Indian Still Lifes”,will open on March 15 and is part of the FOCUS festival. “It will carry through the notion of narratives and ideas and how meaning is produced and conveyed through inanimate objects,” says Nathaniel Gaskell,curator and creative director,Tasveer.

Generally,culture is studied through its people and their landscape,but their stories lie in lifeless objects such as architecture and tradition. This forms the central theme of the show. While some of the works are used from Tasveer’s archives,the rest have been specially assigned to the photographers.

The photographs try to capture India’s ancient and the nouveau in equal measure,sometimes capturing the bizarre coexistence of both. Like in Anna Fox’s Hotel Interior,a photo taken in an exotic hotel in Rajasthan,where we see a modern telephone receiver placed above a glass case containing a stuffed tiger head.

“My intention was to observe in detail the way different worlds rub up against each other in everyday Indian life. By observing these collisions,I wish to comment on a society in flux,competing on a global stage for a different kind of recognition,” says Fox.

The show that’s on till April 13 will feature works by Vivek Vilasini,Saibal Das,Mahesh Shantaram,Neeta Madahar and Jyothi Bhatt,among others.