" The past is always tense, the future perfect. "
- Zadie Smi
THE FUTURE IS NOT FIXED
In our pursuit of that elusive future, we had lost sight of the present; where we exist, how we live. And now in the span of a few months the future has been transformed from an uncertain to an unknown. Fear stalks us as an infectious virus spreads rapidly across the globe, and the questions swirl. Will we be carefree again? Will we find the courage to emerge from our cages? Will it be this year, the next or ever? Will our species draw on its scientific abilities and invent a cure? Will we learn from this experience? Will we change our relentless consumption patterns that are depleting the earth? Will we finally cooperate across divides and work together? Will we use this threat to subjugate and control human thought? What will the future be ? And how will it look?
This period will go down in history. It will never be forgotten. It will be documented in umpteen ways and interpreted by visual artists in a million more.
This show is an attempt to illustrate these feelings as we live through this point in history. This is the reality of today and this is the truth. The future is not fixed. Not at all anymore.
- Arjun Sawhney
On observing the distinctions between isolation and solitude, the latter which feeds her art, in the ongoing pandemic, Anju Dodiya says, “The great Venetian painter Tintoretto died in a plague pandemic and Munch survived the Spanish flu. I can only laugh at my audacity in February, when I had told a friend that I was planning to do some joyous paintings. What the hell are joyous paintings? Munch gives me joy, most Italian pietas make me sing and the bleak wartime still-lives of Picasso are sumptuous. So will we sustain our joy? What lies ahead?”
