When Memory Fades

From this particular passage in the novel comes a group show titled Loss For Words,curated by Avni Doshi. “One Hundred Years of Solitude was one of my favourite stories from high school,and that passage particularly stayed with me,” says the art writer-turned-curator,who divides her time between Mumbai and New York. “There’s almost something funny about the idea of labelling everything. At the same time,there’s also something sinister and terrifying about it.”

Earlier last year,Doshi sent the passage to a group of artists with an invite to participate in a show curated by her. She wanted the artists to imagine themselves in the situation the people of the imaginary town faced,then put their thoughts on paper. The result is a series of intriguing works by eight artists,Radhika Khimji,Tushar Joag,Chitra Ganesh,Nalini Malani,Sarnath Banerjee,Adip Dutta,Raghava KK and Tara Kelto. The show is currently on at Art Musings gallery,Colaba,till February 25.

For Joag,the idea of labelling is what stood out from the passage. His pen and ink on paper works explore how labelling an object can alter what the object means to us. The passage had a different effect on Raghava KK. “Raghava told me that when he read the passage,he was breathless,” says Doshi. Nalini Malani finds a certain violence in language,whether image or text,and in her work Nursery Tales – 6,images and letters float around,acting as symbols.