An artistic taste of tactility

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A woman’s undergarment is an unlikely material to be used as artwork, so are safety pins and seeds. But when artists from the Indian subcontinent and its neighbouring countries come together under one roof, diversity is bound to make its mark.

In a group show titled “Tactile”, Latitude 28 features the works of 10 artists, which prove that art has no language and is free from the barriers of region and notions.
The participating artists include Anoli Perera from Sri Lanka, Benitha Percival and C. Douglas Chatfield from Chennai, Manisha Gera Baswani and Shivani Aggarwal from New Delhi, Masooma Syed and Muhammed Zeeshan from Pakistan, Mohammad Wahiduzzaman from Bangladesh and Thomas and Renee Rapedius from Germany. The show is based on the concept of how material responds to an artist’s touch. “Tactile is a quality deeply linked to the sense of touch; it is a palpable rendition of character in a feeling, a frame of mind, a visceral response. It is more than a physical faculty. In fact, it transcends such corporeality to help assimilate the experience of sensory perception. And to visually evoke tactility can become an interesting exercise, a necessity or even a compulsion,” explains Bhavna Kakar, director, Latitude 28.
Sri Lankan artist Perera’s work titled The Shroud for a Lost Mother brings out the sense of guilt for a missed opportunity to act with safety pins, cloth, tailor’s dummy and wire. “Life is replete with delayed or posthumous actions. My work refers to an action or non-action with regards to an already lost opportunity for intervention. It reflects the pain, loss and guilt that manifest itself as lamentation. In another interpretation, violence is denoted and futility of prevention comes as a procedure too delayed,” the artist says.
The safety pins, woven together for the shroud, have a close affinity to a woman’s garments as they are used for holding, tightening, loosening and fastening the garment together. At the same time, the pin also has the potential for violence and can be used for defence. The white garment underneath the shroud of safety pins plays out the sense of purity, innocence, and veneration that is already violated. Two-time Berger award winner Wahiduzzaman interestingly calls his work Image + Experience = You. His acrylic on canvas and steel is inspired by his understanding of the present world, which is losing its humanity in trying to balance values of life with rationality and practicality. He tries to depict the degradation in modern society through symbols, colours and textures.
“Every child grows up with an image of his or her hero from the world of fantasy. Either comic books or animated motion images create a perception of a superhero with unimaginable superpowers to fight evil, and work for social good. But gradually these perceptions mingle with experiences gathered from society and the daily anxieties of life. In my artworks, the vibrant glittering colour of base reflects the surface where two images from fantasy and reality bring me to self — that is ‘You’,” the Bangladeshi artist explains.
Pakistani artist Syed’s sculptural works titled All the King’s Men and Jacob’s Creek are inspired by and embellished with images from nature. She says, “Nature is vivacious and musical. It is colourful. The two colourful pieces in the show are inspired by flowers and birds of paradise, by plants and feathers, while making a reference to the human body.”
Like in her earlier works, Syed uses human hair in addition to undergarments, feathers and wires for this show. The hats in her works are made of women’s panties and are designed to look like a cabaret hat or crowns of the royals or even those worn by the holy ones. “This artwork is a celebration of the hidden and the forbidden. On one hand, it is an attempt at demystifying the grace and grandeur of the sacred, and on the other, it represents a pun and play on our social snobbery and our self-imposed taboos on the human body,” she adds.
German artists Thomas and Renée Rapedius studied together at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg, and have been collaborating ever since. Their store of motifs has been especially enriched by their most recent trips to Argentina, India and Korea. Their sculptures consist of simple and lightweight materials, frequently paper or cardboard — that are most often used for drawing.
Aggarwal’s Half Knit is based on the use of threads and explores the relationship between tension and release, attachment and separation, bondage and freedom. Explaing the reason for using threads in her work, the Delhi-based artist says, “Threads are knit sometimes or cut to shreds. They repair at times and entangle at others. My work discovers these relationships using everyday objects and instruments. The webbed mass of red thread takes on the form of blood vessels… The resultant image seems to be of a great spilling out emphasising some sort of loss or some sort of fullness of holding together.”
For some time now, New Delhi-based Manisha Gera Baswani has been drawn to heritage and her works in tea water and gouache in the current show, titled How Green Was My Valley and Melting Moments, have been inspired from her visits to Mandu, Madhya Pradesh. Her tea water series takes the viewer through the landscapes of Mandu hills in the heat of summer.
“In my earlier works, nature had been confined to tight parameters and insets, but in this show, I have let nature flow to regally become all-pervading,” she says.

The month-long show, which is under way at the Latitude 28 gallery in New Delhi, will conclude on November 13.