Exhibition

Astapura by Mayadhar Sahu

15 Apr 2024 – 21 Apr 2024

Regular hours

Monday
10:00 – 18:00
Tuesday
10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 18:00
Thursday
10:00 – 18:00
Friday
10:00 – 18:00
Saturday
10:00 – 18:00

Free admission

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Bikaner House

New Delhi
Delhi, India

Event map

Exhibition Title: Astapura by Mayadhar Sahu
Curator: Anica Mann
Venue: Main Art Gallery, Bikaner House, India Gate, New Delhi
Exhibition Dates: 15-21 April 2024
Preview: 17th April 2024
Timings: 11 AM - 7 PM

About

“When our villages are fully developed, there will be no dearth in them of men with a high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be Village Poets, Village Artists, Linguists and Research Workers.” M.K Gandhi


A utopian idea that premises the village as the primary constituent unit of a country against the glaring reality in present times where all routes lead out of the village. The village was the host of indigenous philosophies and mercantile acumen that was rooted in the land. Now the village remains a time warp that provides labour to the country.

Mayadhar Sahu’s exhibition Astapura is a route map back to his village – Astapura, in Mayurbhaj; Orissa. This village serves as his anchor in building his practice. A practice that is an assimilation of nostalgia that unabashedly overwhelmed him in all the places he lived. As an art student in Bhubaneswar, the artist could not rid his being from his origin. He came from a family of vegetable merchants, where Garlic was the primary produce sold, among other seasonal varieties. The staple; the mainstay. Thus, when in a foreign land, the artist recalled his roots by sculpting what he knew. The touch, the shape, the smell, the way to keep, the way to
eat. These intrinsic features were part of his identity. They were not mundane constituents of cuisine, but the symbol of care and nourishment. His first creation that was an ode to his legacy, his family, his village.

First it was the garlic, then it was the banana, followed by the entire retinue of vegetable sold in Astapura. In marble, he recreated the vegetable shop maintained by his family through generations. His practice was built further at M.S University Baroda, a school that rejected him thrice. In Gujarat, he felt at home near Dwarakadhish, the ancient city of Krishna that recalled Bhuvaneshwar, the city of Visnu, the city of Jagannath. He found his route back home in the mythology of the submerged city’s wooden idols finding their way to Orissa through the sea. He recalled the temple city and built in wood the mythologies and philosophies that formed his identity as an Oriya, he carved in wood the stories he collected understanding India.


Slowly through his practice the artist built a temple city. Crafting a marketplace through his vegetable sculptures recreating in this exhibition the Haṭṭa’s of Astapura of old Orissa leading to the temple. This exhibition is the journey taken by Mayadhar back to his village recounting the steps one takes to go back to their roots, not just a family home but the family village.


- Anica Mann

CuratorsToggle

Anica Mann

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Mayadhar Sahu

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