Experimenter presents Sohrab Hura’s Snow (2015—Ongoing), for Art Basel OVR: 2021, an immersive body of photographs that look at Kashmir through the prism of arrival and departure of the three phases of winter. The snow becomes a metaphor for a complex set of realities in Kashmir – of decades of political freezing and thawing of relationships offering possibilities without any resolutions. Hura’s lens is mesmerised and deceived by the snow at first, and as it starts to melt, so does the mask of denial start to slip and he, the outsider, comes to terms with the land that he finds himself in. From snowed in landscapes bereft of human presence to severe army intrusions, the photographs embody a palpable undertone of tension.
Sohrab Hura (b.1981) is a photographer and film maker. Recent exhibitions include: Spill at Huis Marseille (2021) The Coast at Liverpool Biennial (2021); Spill at Experimenter, Kolkata (2020); Companion Pieces: New Photography, MoMA, New York (2020) organised by Lucy Gallun; Searching for Stars Amongst the Crescents, Experimenter, Kolkata (2019); Videonale, Kunstmuseum Bonn (2019); The Levee, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati (2019); Homelands: Art from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, curated by Devika Singh, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (2019); Eyes Wild Open: Life is Elsewhere, Le Botanique, Brussels (2018); The Levee - FotoFest Houston (2018); Sweet Life, Experimenter, Kolkata (2017); The 10th Shanghai Biennale curated by Raqs Media Collective (2016) amongst others. Hura’s work has been widely shown in international film festivals such as UNDERDOX Film Festival; Vancouver International Film Festival; Image Forum, Tokyo; Arkipel Film Festival, Jakarta; Moscow International Experimental Film Festival; Oberhausen International Short Film Festival; FotoFest International, Houston. Hura was awarded the 2020 Principal Prize of the International Jury at the 66th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen Online for Bittersweet; The Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook of the Year Award for The Coast, 2019; Nomination to the Paris Photo–Aperture PhotoBook of the Year Award Look It's Getting Sunny Outside!!!, 2018. Special Mention by the International Jury at the Oberhausen International Film Festival for The Lost Head & The Bird; Award for the Best Contribution, NRW category at the Oberhausen International Film Festival for The Lost Head & The Bird in 2020. His work may be found in the permanent collection of MoMA New York, Ishara Art Foudation, Dubai, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati amongst other collections both private and public. Hura lives and works in New Delhi.
