Volte Art Projects in Dubai presents Indian artist Shambhavi Singh’s first solo show in the Middle East. Titled To see a world in a grain of sand…, it is curated by Sasha Altaf, an independent curator and art critic, and will be open to the public until 27 October 2023.
Growing up, Singh often visited her grandparents in the countryside, which deeply informed her art. Drawing from the rural landscape and the earth itself, she appropriates, distorts, and symbolically creates surfaces and patterns within nature. In her non-figurative art pieces, she delves into the relationship between man and the natural world. The artist also focuses on the life and struggles of the Indian agricultural worker, who she considers to be at the core of the nation’s identity.
Among Singh’s sculptural works that are on display in the exhibition is, for example, Braille (2008), a sculpture resembling a gigantic sieve. This artwork pays tribute to hidden stories of Indian women at work who husk the grain. Another exhibit is Dooaar Door (Sacred) (2018) comprising three enlarged sickles. Here, the sickle used for harvesting or reaping becomes a “point of entry”.
It should be mentioned that the artist often employs the sickle, “the eternal symbol of the toiling peasant in India”, in her art practice to pull together different meanings. In her work Reaper’s Melody/Kaatani Geet (2018), she arranged 294 iron sickles in a corner of the event venue Aspinwall House (Kochi, India). The shapes and the resulting shadows reminded one of birds in flight or numerous critters that are scurrying up a wall or descending from it.
About the artist
Shambhavi Singh (b. 1966, Patna, India) resides in New Delhi. Her practice deploys a full range of mediums: painting, drawing, sculpting, printmaking, installation, and video, to name a few.
In 1986, Singh obtained a BFA in Painting from the College of Fine Arts and Crafts in Patna. Later, she graduated from Delhi College of Art with a MFA degree. In 1997, Singh participated in an international project at Tropenmuseum, an ethnographic museum in Amsterdam (Netherlands). From 2000 to 2001, she was artist-in-residence at Greatmore Studios (Cape Town, South Africa). She also joined Holland South Africa Line (HSAL), an international exchange project. From 2010 to 2011, Singh was an artist-in-residence at STPI – Creative Workshop and Gallery (Singapore).
The artist’s works have been featured in a plethora of exhibitions not only in India but also abroad: Lullaby (a solo show at Talwar Gallery, New Delhi, India, 2008); A Bird and 2000 Echoes (a solo show at Talwar Gallery, New York, USA, 2007–2006); Bilkool, The Next Wave Festival (Melbourn, Australia, 1998); Earth And Sky (a solo show at Foundation for Indian Artists (FIA), Amsterdam, 1997); Drawing 1994 (Gallery Escape, New Delhi, 1994); and many others.
To get more information To see a world in a grain of sand…, please visit the show’s official web page.
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