An Exhibition in Kolkata Explores The Intrinsic Relationship Between Paper and Society

Emami Art, a Kolkata-based art organisation and a key space for cultural production in the eastern region, is holding an exhibition which showcases the manifold engagements and explorations of paper as a support, a material, a concept, a process and/or other intellectual engagements from individual, formal, historical, socio-cultural, political perspectives to name but a few.

Titled the Politics of Paper, it is curated by Ushmita Sahu and begins on February 13, 2022.

The exhibition will address a renewed interest by contemporary artists in the medium of paper as integral to their practice and also as a point of departure.

As an introduction to the exhibition, curator Ushmita Sahu said that due to its inherent intellectual flexibility (the ability to adapt to changing circumstances rapidly), paper is woven into the very fabric of human history and has proven itself to be an extremely versatile artistic vehicle. It allows the exploration of complex narratives- social, historical, conceptual, formal or otherwise. Paper had consolidated its position as a significant contemporary medium with the purchase it had gained during the 1970s when drawing came into its own as a critical language of art.

But in today&rsquos digital world, where &lsquogoing paperless&rsquo is the norm, will paper lose its value Or, will it still retain its intrinsic nature as a vital gestural behaviour

The Politics of Paper talks about engagements and explorations of paper and tries to establish a visual context of the expanding boundaries through several works and approaches by 10 internationally renowned artists - Adip Dutta, Anju Dodiya, Atul Dodiya , Chandra Bhattacharya, Jagannath Panda, Jayashree Chakravarty, Mithu Sen, N S Harsha, Prasanta Sahu and TV Santosh.

According to curator Sahu, for each artist within the show, paper embodies ideas of accretion and transformation that predicates a uniqueness of language and approach. By trying to connect diverse approaches, the exhibition becomes a site of collaborations with multiple entry and exit ways.

In addition to this, there will be collateral events which will include presentations by the artists and engagement with students of art colleges from the state. A seven day workshop will be designed around the exploration of paper which will also include some of the senior artists and selected young upcoming artists from the region.

When February 12 to March 29, 2022, Monday to Saturday, from 11am to pm.

Where Emami Art, Ground Floor, Kolkata Centre for Creativity, 777, Anandapur EM Bypass, Kolkata &ndash 700 107. Tel 033-6623-2300.

For more details, see here