The Guild Art Gallery is pleased to present, ‘Synonymous’, curated by Shubhalakshmi Shukla

The show features works by artists, Binu Bhaskar, Kiran Subbaiah, Mithu Sen, Navjot Altaf, Tejal Shah and Vidya Kamat.

“The contemporary visual culture has a lot to do with representations of the self, extending questions of identity. It could 

mean a direct political presence in a life-scale cut-out image, a larger-than-life image in a film, or an endorsement.

Apart from this publicly acknowledgeable presence there is always one that is oriented towards self-revelation and the truth 

that constructs the ‘personal’ (like the unembellished pages of a diary).

In the present times self –representation encompasses a larger paradigm of the contemporary art practices. Mostly these images

unravel a truth- the artist has been engaged with. Or it perpetuates an unquestioned layer of identity that seems to be transforming 

on its own. How are these images political? How do they convey the self-revealing truth to the surrounding world? How are these 

pages consciously written ‘personalized’ and meant to be published? -are the questions which come to the mind.

With an unequivocal interest in the individual as subject from the time of Renaissance, artists have evolved a critical and 

introspective knowledge about this field. In the present exhibition, they perform instinctively, yet with conscious interests

in their presence in a photograph or a video clipping, elevating the genre of photography and film-making from its roots 

in documentation or journalism. However, one is aware that the two genres have made an impact in the 1970’s art movements

in the West, with assertive questions of self-representations dealing with gender and sexuality.

Most of the works in the present exhibition find a link with undeviating questions around identity with reference to gender and 

sexuality. At times there is an ironical expression where gloom and beauty appears as inseparable, while on other occasions   

black humor appears to form a spontaneous gesture. One also observes that the ‘self’ extends to fantastical representations of

‘family’, glorifying the lost values of togetherness and interdependence against the rise of ruthless individualism. In the times when 

an individual is continuously made alert and responsible for each action that may construe atomic truths while investigating the

synonymous-self, the moments of psychological freedom are less and less. Paradoxically, the present is also about highest 

regards for consciousness around individualism.  

According to neuroscience (as proposed by Wegner D.M), in self- portraits, the assumption is, that actions are governed by thoughts

and body is governed by consciousness. Thus, self portrait leads to the persuasion that we consciously desire to make meaning,

a need for the authorship or responsibility of one’s actions.

The artists of the present times could be viewed through the above observations. They bring across a need for representations 

that indicate psychological freedom.” 

- Shubhalakshmi Shukla