PRESS RELEASE
Atul Bhalla '…within/without…'
23 May – 21 June 2008
Opening 22 May, 6.30 – 9.00
For many living in Delhi, the reality of water in recent years has become that of a bottled and sterilized brand, a far stretch from its sacred place in Indian tradition. Atul Bhalla's work attempts to understand water within the urban environment; his practice engages with many of its physical, emotive, historical, religious and political manifestations, and participates directly in the politics of water today. Working in a variety of media, Bhalla's work returns to light many of the cultural meanings and associations with water that in a modern industrialized society have become muddied or lost.
For his first UK solo exhibition, Atul Bhalla will display six water tanks, each etched with words such as 'Beauty' or 'My Two Hands'. The titles of the tanks differ correspondingly, for example, Revolt and Space. The link between the particular engravings and the titles within the series is a myth, in which a Yaksha (demon) asked Yushishtir (a prince from the Mahabharata) a series of questions in exchange for a drink from a lake. The etched words are the prince's answers, whilst the questions are hinted at in the titles. By answering the questions correctly the prince not only proved his wisdom and worthiness to be king, but also laid out the tenets of dharma; the myth also reiterates the historical importance of water within India's culture. Without prior knowledge of the myth, the viewer can only resort to a personal intuition and understanding of water to consider the works, allowing the tanks to garner a multitude of conceptual meanings, and become wider repositories for dialogues that are linked to ideas ranging from history, knowledge, memory, environment, development and contemporary politics.
The series Wash/Water/Blood documents the artist slaughtering a goat in order to make a traditional water carrier, or mashk, from its hide. A bhishti (or 'life giver') is the name of the Islamic caste whom traditionally carried and worshipped the mashk (whose importance in India today is exemplified by Bhalla being unable to find a halal butcher willing to kill the goat on his behalf). Thus, this series not only considers the religious notion of the taking of life in order to preserve life, but additionally, that of water spillage, transferal and preservation.
Other works exhibited at Aicon include Bhalla's photographs of piaus (public drinking water stations) in Old Delhi highlighting the state of filth and disrepair many of them are in, and the video projection and installation "Sap", which documents the felling and gradual loss of water from a tree branch over the period of a year. While ostensibly Bhalla's work explores the roles of water within the urban fabric, by doing so, it frequently reveals undercurrents of violence or neglect in man's involvement with it. It is at this level that Bhalla's works are at their most powerful, beautiful, and ominous.
Editors' Notes
Bhalla's work was first seen in the UK at the Frieze Art Fair 2007. There, he exhibited with the New Delhi based artist association KHOJ, who were exhibiting at the fair as part of its not for profit programme. In 2006 Bhalla's work was exhibited at the Fotographie Forum Frankfurt as part of the Watching Me Watching India, New Photography from India exhibition (his piece I Was Not Waving but Drowning was chosen for the catalogue's cover). Bhalla studied Fine Arts at the College of Fine Art in New Delhi, and then travelled to the USA to study for his Masters in Fine Art in the Northern Illinois University.
Forthcoming exhibitions at Aicon Gallery include a solo exhibition of foremost contemporary Indian artist Bose Krishnamachari in July 2008.
For further press information and visuals, please contact
Rhiannon Pickles on rhiannon@picklespr.com Tel: +44 20 7096 8809 / mobile: +31 6158 21202
Aicon Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am to 7pm.
Tel: +44 20 7734 7575 / email: london@aicongallery.com
Other works exhibited at Aicon include Bhalla's photographs of the piaus (public drinking water stations) in Old Delhi highlighting the state of filth many of them are in, and the video projection "Sap", which documents from close the felling of a tree branch. While ostensibly Bhalla's works explore the roles of water within the city's fabric, by doing so, they also reveal an undercurrent of violence or neglect in man's involvement with it. It is at this level that Bhalla's works are at their most powerful, beautiful, and ominous
Aicon Gallery, 8 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BU
Tel: +44 20 7734 7575, Fax: +44 20 7734 0090, london@aicongallery.com
www.aicongallery.com
Editors' Notes
Bhalla's work was first seen in the UK at the Frieze Art Fair 2007. There, he exhibited with the New Delhi based artist association KHOJ, who were exhibiting at the fair as part of its not for profit programme. In 2006 Bhalla's work was exhibited at the Fotographie Forum Frankfurt as part of the Watching Me Watching India, New Photography from India exhibition (his piece I Was Not Waving but Drowning was chosen for the catalogue's cover). Bhalla studied Fine Arts at the College of Fine Art in New Delhi, and then travelled to the USA to study for his Masters in Fine Art in the Northern Illinois University.
Forthcoming exhibitions at Aicon Gallery include a solo exhibition of foremost contemporary
Indian artist Bose Krishnamachari in July 2008.
For further press information and visuals, please contact Rhiannon Pickles on rhiannon@picklespr.com Tel: +44 20 7096 8809 / mobile: +31 6158 21202
Aicon Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 11am to 7pm.
Tel: +44 20 7734 7575 / email: london@aicongallery.com