MUMBAI.- Chemould Prescott Road presents a solo exhibition, I am Landscape Painter by Archana Hande.
The exhibition opens to public on December 4.
Hybridity. Exchange. Migration. These words coalesce around the human stories Archana Hande explores through mixed media in her upcoming show I am a Landscape Painter. A suite of photographs, videos, watercolours and textiles created as part of her travelogue, meanders through the journey of human identity impacted by geographical borders shifting in response to trade: be it from the port cities of Bombay and Calcutta, the Indian Ocean or from the cities across the Silk - Salt route and the Goldfields trail in Australia.
The Golden Feral Trail in Western Australia is narrated through Hande’s conversations with an ‘Afghan’s’ daughter, Dimple. Dimple’s concerns about her dubious heritage reflect today’s hesitation towards the Other. We live our deepest fears through Dimple’s dialogues with Archana.
The Salt-Silk Route traverses through parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Tibet, continuing the ‘Afghan’s’ journey across the trading communities which dot this area from the 12th century. Textile mills in Bombay, Patola makers in Patan, merchant travelling in Tibet to salt trading in Nepal, complete the route.
Finally, Mumbai and Kolkatta are observed as ports for goods and humans, where the Cameleers Abdul and Akbar culminate in Hande’s memories.
The topographical contours of the earth reflect these in the form of digs, mines, hills; all of which hide and narrate stories. Collecting these stories made Archana Hande realize that she always wants to be a landscape painter, with or without borders.
Archana Hande (b) 1970, Mumbai
In 1986-1991 Archana completed her B.F.A, Printmaking at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan and completed her M.F.A Printmaking at M.S. University, Baroda in 1993.
She has held several solo exhibitions from 1998 to 2014 with Gallery Chemould / Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai; Lakeeren, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Mumbai; Sumukha Art Gallery, Bangalore; Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; Nature Morte, New Delhi; Z2O Galleria, Italy; International Art Space, Perth WA, Australia; LLCCA Laverton Outback Gallery, Laverton, Western Australia, Perth WA, Australia and the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai.
Selected exhibitions, and workshop include The Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia; Asia Society and Museum, New York, Tamayo Museum, Mexico City; Museum of Contemporary Art (Marco), Monterrey, The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, USA and the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai & New Delhi, India 2004-07 (Travelling exhibition); Art Circus, Yokohama Triennial, Yokohoma, Japan 2005; India Express, Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Rethinking Nordic Colonialism / A Postcolonial Exhibition', Project in Five Acts (Kuratorisk Aktion) for NIFCA, Nordic Institute for Contemporary Art, Finland; India Bollywood and Living Gods, The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Sweden; Horn Ok Please, Narratives in Contemporary Indian Art, Kunstmuseum Bern; Tales of Patachitrakar & Victoria TV, Gävle Konstcentrum, Sweden and 007 Gallery, Oslo 2007; Farewell to Post-Colonialism, The 3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, China; Gunjifa', International portfolio exchange project, Contemporary Indian Art, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain 2008; So Close Yet So Far Away, Incheon Women Artists’ Biennale, Incheon Art Platform, Korea; Screening of An Epic, Museum of World culture, Gothenburg, Sweden 2009; SAMTIDIGT’, (concurrent), Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden; Shadow Lines, Biennale Jogja XI 2011; Equator #1: Indonesia meets India, 2011; SAMTIDIGT, Helsinki City Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Against All Odds: A Contemporary Response to the Historiography of Archiving Collecting and Museums, India, 2011; Project Cinema City, Co-curated with film maker Madhusree Dutta, National Gallery of Modern Art, (New Delhi, Bombay, Bangalore) and FTII, Pune, India; Berlinale, Berlin, Germany; Social Fabric, Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts), London, UK; Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden; The Dr. Bhau Daji Lad City Museum, Mumbai, India; To Let the World In: Your Democracy, HIlmarfestivalen, Steinkjer, Norway; Trajectories: 19th -21st century printmaking from Pakistan and India, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE, Aesthetic Bind - Cabinet Closet Wunderkammer, 50years Chemould Prescott Road 2014, DonneXDonne, Galleria del Cembalo in Palazzo Borghese, Rome, Italy; Continuing traditions (Safar-Nama: journeys through a Kalamkari hanging), Indian Museum Kolkatta, India, 2014; One and one make eleven, Contemporary Art From India, Kunsthaus Langenthal, Switzerland; Continuing Traditions, Les Traditions Perpetuelle, Musee de la Toile de Jouy, Versailles, France; spaced 2: future recall, Western Australian Museum, Perth, Australia, 2015.
The artist lives and works in Bombay, India.
