SOMETHINGPOLIS
It may be that the city is not what we thought it was, or even that it has ceased to exist. Not that this would be a catastrophe because it is in the nature of things to be born, to grow and to die.
-Ramoneda J., A Philosophical Idea of the City, Yale University, 2003.
Neha Kudchadkar investigates the hidden energies that give shape to conceptual edifices like a city. The work takes the form of object interventions across Jaipur, in dialogue with an archive of objects, and photo documentation in the gallery. These objects while redefining and reclaiming the city, negotiate notions of belonging/exclusion and placement/displacement.
Seeing the city as a living, breathing, growing entity, dually marked by movement and stagnation, she says it is a “documenter of stories and histories. Of mistakes and genius. Of sense and nonsense. A capitalist monster devouring land, devouring time. The embodiment of destruction, destitution, conflict, loss. But also, of brilliance, innovation, wonder, hope. A collector of dreams, of ambitions.” She asks if it was “ever just a settlement of people? A matter of convenience? A space of stability, of security. Home.”
supported by
2018, Glazed & unglazed terracotta, cement, plaster of paris, expanding foam, digital paper prints, found (and altered) shards
Variable size.
NEHA KUDCHADKAR is a visual and performing artist based in Mumbai. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London, and the Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara. Neha has shown her work in several group shows in India and abroad, including Postcolonialism? – a residency, symposium, and exhibition in Israel, and Pinch Your Thumb and Three Fingers, a solo exhibition at the Mumbai Art Room. She is a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship and the Junior Fellowship, Government of India. Neha is founder-director of beej, a performing arts collective in Mumbai.
www.nehakudchadkar.com
