Masha Art to host Delhi photo exhibition of pandemic-time Hampi’s spiritual air
Masha Art to host Delhi photo exhibition of pandemic-time Hampi’s spiritual air
New Delhi / September 7, 2022
New Delhi, Sep 7: The national capital is set to lend fresh glimpse at a major heritage site down the country, as Masha Art is hosting a ten-day exhibition of 60 pandemic-time images on the capital of the medieval-era Vijayanagara empire early next week.
Shot by young Manoj Arora during prolonged spells of Covid-19 that forced people to stay indoors, the September 13-22 ‘Rediscovering Hampi’ is a suite of photographs that unveils the historical beauty of the Unesco-recognised landmark on the banks of the Tungabhadra along east-central Karnataka.
Curated by veteran art scholar Uma Nair, the show is a “narrative expression” of the sprawling monuments renowned for its 14th-century stone sculptures across 16 square miles.
“Not only do these five dozen visuals unveil Arora’s assemblage practices; the lens explores the nature of Hampi as a place of artistic expression,” notes Nair, about the fellow Delhiite. The multi-colour photos are steeped in “historical, geographical and socio-political principles that are discursively powerful as well as personally resonant.”
The exhibition gives sight to Hampi’s temple and their murals as well, with the stone-carved gods and goddesses captured in the refractive indices of the sunset. “Arora yet again proves his capacity to re-center subjects such as architecture and history in cities he visits,” points out Nair. “His artistic engagements are biographical interventions into mainstream cultural consciousnesses.”
Masha Art CEO Samarth Mathur expressed pleasure over ‘Discovering Hampi’ being the gallery’s first show at Bikaner House. “The exhibition will generate pride and reverence for India's heritage that goes back to generations,” he said. The show will remain open on Sunday as well.
Arora, who has been a trained lensman in the profession for a decade, recalls that the setting sun casts an orange haze across the silent ruins of Hampi. “You cannot describe in words the beauty of this timeless place,” he says. “The relief-rich mouldings, columns and friezes are both divine and demon-like. The artworks on animals are both realist and mythical, truly magical.”
Often considered the ‘ultimate capital’ of the last of the great Deccan kingdoms that flourished from cotton and spice trade, Hampi’s medieval charm is haloed also with splendid palaces and jewels-dotting temples built in Dravidian style. Arora, while spending days amid the pandemic last year after seven hours of bumpy northward drive from Bangalore, found its spaces “evoking a spiritual experience”.
The exhibition at Bikaner House has been conceived as an “open-ended index of historical, speculative and emergent instantiations of space through time”, according to Nair and Arora.
