MUMBAI.- Gigi Scaria's work intervenes at the tension created as the world heads towards an apocalypse due to many disturbances – climatic, geographical and human. According to him, Noah’s Ark represents the phoenix of new beginnings arising from this complete destruction. The Ark is the recurring motif that appears in tranquil and desolate landscapes in a suite of paintings, graphite drawings and animated videos.
It also suggested that the elimination of any species could be absolutely dependent upon it’s moral and ethical conduct. The ultimate destruction comes with reason, and the new beginning is born of great imagination. The interplay of reason and imagination is as old as the beginning of creation. Eliminating anything from the world comes with a responsibility of building it anew. If history is pieced together through the ages, why should the destroyer perish it with a single stroke with little or no reason? After every destruction, why do we need to come up with an idea, which reconstitutes our imagination again? This cycle of destruction and creation is symbiotically connected where the seed to grow new life is preserved in its death.
The many layers of The Ark represent an abode, which was never meant to set sail, but provide sanctuary as the world reaches The End. The Ark manifests in itself the ‘habitat’ which is the lone shelter from the devastation yet to occur and its solution as well.
Gigi Scaria (b 1973), Kerala, India, completed his B.F.A. (painting) from the College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram in 1995 and his M.F.A. (painting), in from the Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, in 1998.
He has held solo exhibitions at galleries such as, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, India, Galerie, Christian Hosp, Berlin, Germany; Video Space, Budapest, Hungary H Cube Gallery, Seoul, Korea; the National Art Studio, ChangDong, Seoul, Korea and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, Australia.
His major participations include, Sights and Sounds: India, The Jewish Museum, New York, 2015; Multiplicity City as subject/matter, Belfast, Hong Kong, New Delhi, New York, Tel Aviv; Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Fort Kochi, India, 2014; Every one agrees: it’s about to explode, curated by Ranjit Hoskote, India Pavilion at 54th Venice Biennale, 2011, 3rd Singapore Biennale, curated by Russell Storer and Trevor Smith, 2011 and Video Zone-4, The 4th International video art Biennial, Tel Aviv, Israel, Forms of Activism / Sahmat / curated by Vivan Sundaram & Sasha Altaf, Lalit kala Gallery, Raveendra Bhavan, New Delhi, 2014; Aesthetic Bind: Citizen Artist: forms of address, Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai, curated by Geeta Kapur, France Heritage – A photographic voyage of French heritage in India, Alliance Francaise Delhi, Ahemdabad, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Lalit Kala Academy Chennai, National Gallery of Modern Art Bangalore, The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India Since 1989, Smart Museum Chicago, City Unclaimed, a site specific installation installed at the Smart Museum Chicago, 2013; Critical Mass: Contemporary Art from India, curated by Tami Katz Freimann and Rotem Tuff, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, Sub –Topical Heat: New art from South Asia, curated by Rhana Devenport at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand, To Let the world in, Lalitkala Academy Gallery, Chennai, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, Cynical Love: Life in the everyday, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, curated by Gayatri Sinha, 2012; India side by side, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. In Rio De Janeiro, SESC Belenzinho, Sao Paulo, Curated by Tereza de Arruda, Samtidigt Indian contemporary art exhibition, Helsinki City Art Museum, Finland and Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Video Art India, curated by Luissa Ortinez, Fundacio la Caixa, Barcelona, Spain, 2010; India Moderna, Ivam Museum, Valencia, Spain, Chalo India, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan, Public Places/Private Spaces: Contemporary Photography and Video Art In India, The Newark Museum, New Jersey, U S A, Curated by Gayatri Sinha, After Shock Conflict, Violence and Resolution in Cotemporary Art, a group show supported by Sainsbury Centre in collaboration with Matthew Shaul and the UH Galleries, England, curated by Yasmin Zahir, Horn Please: Narratives in contemporary Indian Art, Kunstmuseam Bern, Switzerland, Crossing Generations Diverge, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, curated by Geeta Kapur and Chaitanya Sambrani, 2003.
The artist lives and works in New Delhi.
