EXISTENCE - NONEXISTENCE
India’s independence from colonial rule came with the bitter price of partition. The fallout separated kith from kin and made strangers of families; their shared history now relegated to memory and their homes disconnected. “I am from a family whose ancestors belong to Bangladesh in undivided India; to a land of reminiscence, of childhood lullabies and endless pampering”, explains Asim Paul. In today’s India, Asim requires legal papers to visit Bangladesh. To him the need for papers to visit a place to which he and his ancestors belonged feels like a painful absurdity.
The project features a series of totemic representations of souls, memories and people, strung through with barbed wire; a “grave yard translated into votive pillars”. In Asim’s mind the barbed wire has become a ‘death wire’, slicing ties, cutting through bonds and starving the spirit. His work is a cry from the heart, a yearning lament for lost memories and an entreaty for a less bleak future.
2018, Stoneware, bricks, iron
Variable size
ASIM PAUL has an MFA in Ceramics from the Government College of Art and Craft, Kolkata. He uses the Lalit Kala Akademi’s Kolkata studio for ceramics, and paints in his private studio. He has spent several years in production design projects across India and enjoys the challenges of working with space and light. For the past five years he has worked in site-specific Durga Puja temporary installation projects in Kolkata. He has shown in both, solo exhibitions and major events in India including at ArtIchol MP, and the Lalit Kala Akademi. He has received recognitions from the Government Art College, Kolkata, Indian Society of Oriental Art, Academy of Fine Arts and the Chemould Art Gallery, Kolkata.
