The Strangers We Know art exhibition explores disconnect among kith and kin

The Strangers We Know creation exhibition, presently connected astatine Neighbour Gallery successful Kesavadasapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, is divided into 2 by a monochrome partition filled with photographs from the grounds titled Surge by Chennai-based lensman Priyadarshini Ravichandran. The achromatic and achromatic portraits are displayed successful a grid, bordering the entranceway to different country wherever the remainder of photos from the bid are showcased.

On the other partition are creation installations by Thiruvananthapuram-based creator Sanath Sugathan, faintly boasting shades of green, blue, brownish and more. Unevenly spaced and unsocial successful form, the works scope from acrylic paintings to sketches by the creator wrapped astir the gallery’s pillar.

However, contempt the evident contrast, the artists and their creation are tethered by their disconnect with the acquainted and the familial, “attempting to header with the fragility of humor ties portion besides celebrating the connections they experienced with strangers.”

Surge solely consists of pigment-printed photographs captured by Priyadarshini during a store successful Cambodia. The remainder of the grounds includes an accordion photobook with pictures glued to it successful a checkerboard signifier and 2 larger photos connected each side, showcased connected a wall.

The photos stemmed from Priyadarshini’s request to seizure a “loss of connection” with her sibling backmost home. Portraits of “strangers, animals, trees, rocks and cityscapes became placeholders for articulating the complexity of my relationship,” she says.

“I made Surge from an insuppressible request to escaped myself from the guilt I felt owed to an estrangement. My process and gait of taking photographs was rigorous, arsenic if to explicit myself adjacent erstwhile connection had ceased,” says Priyadarshini, a victor of the Parasol prize by V&A Museum, a prestigious planetary grant for women photographers.

Another grounds by Priyadarshini is Paattu Class, a 15-minute documentary made with footage compiled implicit the past 10 years. It deals with the narration betwixt the photographer’s parent and the mother’s aunt. Priyadarshini studies euphony from the two, and these lessons signifier the crux of the documentary. Over the years, the aunt became a parent to Priyadarshini’s mother.

“I ne'er intended to marque a film. I began to movie our classes mostly to memorise the verses, and implicit clip these recordings began to unravel the unspoken quality of their narration to me,” she says.

“I began to edit the movie aft a person based successful Kathmandu nudged maine to bash it upon proceeding that my grandma had passed distant past year,” says Priyadarshini, who changeable the movie connected handycams, DSLRs and phones.

Shades and glimmers

On 1 country of Sanath’s broadside of the exhibits, a cactus works is acceptable up. On a person look, determination are scribbles connected the tender stem of the godforsaken works that reads ‘grandmother’, ‘mother’, ‘son’, ‘grandfather’ ... 1 connected each branch. A fewer feet distant from the larger plant, a tiny works is besides placed connected the soil.

The Family Tree grounds tin beryllium traced backmost to Sanath’s puerility memories of his ancestral location successful Paripally, Kollam. “There was a cactus works successful 1 country of the house; it was not precise ample but had a batch of branches. I retrieve uncovering my cousins’ names being etched connected its branches. I besides did the same,” says Sanath.

“I felt the works represented our household metaphorically. The cactus has a protective exterior owed to the thorns, but the works by itself is precise soft,” says Sanath.

Does It Still Hurt to Step connected Broken Glass successful The Sand?, is an acrylic coating of solid shards connected soil with the ends of a cassette portion fluttering successful the air. The cassette is displayed too.

This artwork is intimately related to an thought called spacious togetherness, referring to the value of abstraction betwixt individuals successful antithetic relationships.

“During a conversation, 1 of the initiators of the Neighbour gallery, Valentina Abenavoli, told maine astir however 2 porcupines cannot basal excessively adjacent to each different oregon hug each other. They indispensable find a comfy abstraction to basal without hurting each other,” says Sanath, pointing retired that traversing done relationships requires a consciousness of tenderness, overmuch similar walking connected soil with breached glass, inspired by a show adjacent his residence successful Varkala.

The shards of solid correspond glimmer, a short-lived ray of light, explains Sanath, recalling his changeless “pursuit of imaginable tenderness oregon healing” done glimmers arsenic a child.

The portion from the audio cassettes fluttering represents a halfway representation for the creator who utilized to propulsion cassettes precocious up connected histrion branches and spot the brownish tapes bent there. This happened erstwhile cassettes were becoming obsolete with the accomplishment of the CD, Sanath recalls.

Three Scenes of a Landscape consists of 2 alleviation sculptures (sculptures attached to the background) made from plaster of Paris and a five-minute video of a household getaway captured by Sanath.

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“It was a hard clip for my family. We travelled to a spot reasoning it mightiness assistance america heal, and I started recording,” says Sanath.

As a child, Sanath’s sister had developed a fearfulness of h2o erstwhile she astir drowned successful the sea. However, the video has her stepping into a watercourse with currents. In the backdrop, Sanath’s mother, retired of fear, asks her girl to return. “She is trying to power her kid with her fear. That’s erstwhile we spot my sister interruption her hereditary patterns by stepping into the water.”

His different works astatine the accumulation see drawings and excerpts of his writings, an archival publication and Gouache (opaque watercolour) connected Chinese paper.

The Strangers We Know accumulation is connected till May 31 astatine Neighbour Gallery successful Kesavadasapuram, Thiruvananthapuram. Entry free.