Smruthi Gargi Eswar

Sister Misfortune

Alakshmi, the goddess daughters are never named after, gives this series its name. She is the dark side of the ever welcome Lakshmi,Goddess of Fortune, who really needs no introduction. Alakshmi is Sister Misfortune. And she does need an introduction. For the simple reason that she is so minimally engaged with. For our natural, human response is to shy away from the unpleasant. But how dark is dark? Is it as disturbing as we have been led to believe or is it merely the rest of the story? And thus begins an exploration both disturbing and ultimately triumphantly life affirming. An exploration not just of duality but of multiplicity. This is the exhilarating and unfathomably complex universe of Woman appearing as she does in her various and beguiling avatars in the pantheon of goddesses of Hindu mythology. Sister Misfortune is also a probe - compelling, uncompromising and fearless – like the goddesses themselves – into our attitudes - women towards themselves, men towards women. How does the idea of a goddess coexist with Everywoman? How do we so casually dismiss, disrespect, disregard and defile in our quotidien existence that which we have bedecked with gold and enshrined in a temple?We consider all this and more as Smruthi Gargi Eswar masterfully manipulates the almost melodic fluidity, rhythmic forms and floral refrains of the Art Nouveau style to liberate the goddesses from their traditional representations – the stiff starched unsexed beings of calendar art and mythological soap operas.The lightness of the art form is a message itself. It contemporises. It liberates. The elaborate ornamentation is not a mere frill – it is a philosophy: aesthetics is important, beauty for its own sake is as elevating as any virtue. We are asked to take another look at the very idea of what sanctity is. Can we a light a diya to these goddesses? This an important question, probably the most important for it leads us to contemplate what it is that we celebrate.

The Logue

Digitally created artworks of the human anatomy, and natural elements printed on.

We break away into a million pieces. Pieces we don’t recognize. But other creatures do, and they take us in. And in them we start all over again In our body, is everything. Rivers, fire, distant places, forgotten people, storms, animals and things silently waiting for us to recognise. The drama of this landscape talks about the absent, the invisible and all things outside that reside in us.

Bee Pod

Bangalore

A culture of abundance.As urban dwellers we tend to have a sentimental view of nature. Nature is the other. Beyond the horizon. If it ours, it’s a garden, or a farm for the weekends. Regardless it is framed within a window. And we are on the other side viewing it. Even if we do understand it as rich and full of wealth, it's entirely separate from what we sustain and create, as wealth. And the measure of this wealth is based on how nature can sustain us. And the entire worth of the natural world rests on how it furnishes our existence. Bees in a way are tightly tied up with the larger economy of our existence, playing a vital role (through pollination) sustaining the whole planet’s ecosystems. And then there is the honey. The rich gold they hold in honeycombs.I am fascinated by nature that we cannot access. It's abundance that does not rest on furnishing our existence. That is to me, is the culture of abundance. The creation of wealth that one does not use and cannot use. With Beepod I wanted to make an installation that acts as an arena, that is living and creating beyond my involvement. The structure is built to house bees. As a womb for inaccessible honey. Its nature as energy and struggle that exists without making any promises to us. I am interested in the beauty that is encountered in that fearsomely indifferent natural context.