Experimenter presents Making Visible, a solo by Ayesha Sultana that marks the inaugural exhibition of Experimenter – Colaba, and Sultana’s first solo in Mumbai.
Sultana’s exhibition stands at the precipice between two moments in time, paying attention to neither experiences in time, but only to the relationship between the two moments. She continues to delve into her ongoing interests to present a body of works, which push forth her existing practice alongside new paintings, drawings and sculptures that connect a wide range of interests, unravelling a metaphysical understanding of space, architecture and emotion.
A floor sculpture in hand-cast concrete holds within it, areas of void, reflecting and folding upon itself. Sultana seems to explore this relationship further through another body of work using paper, spliced and folded in steady gestures, blurring the line between the doer and the object and concentrating once again, on the action of doing, neither focussing on the paper nor the graphite nor the hand.
The act of mark-making and repetition is at the crucible of her practice and Sultana often refers to her work as a ‘verb’. These deliberations are revealed through the drawing series Breath Count. Emphasizing on awareness of her breath through scratching the surface of clay-coated paper are personal explorations of mark-making and corporeality for Sultana. They are a contemplation of the interconnectedness of her own body to larger systems. Cutting into the surface of the paper, Sultana reveals patterns that represent a delicate inward probe using time, rhythm and removal in breath.
Making Visible contemplates the void in between thought and action, inhalation and exhalation, twilight and darkness, and how such momentary interludes may offer possibilities of holding space as an emotive force. A body of paintings of the sea and a seemingly infinite space beyond, inarguably refer to personal emotions as well as to a constant return to looking at water as an amorphous, shape-shifting medium that holds more than what is apparent on its surface. For Sultana, the sea grows to be that place that conceals deep within it, a space of void and water finds itself sculpted both in its rigidity as well as its fluidity through glass, aluminium and brass in the exhibition.
Sultana tends to push the boundaries of the materials she works with, testing them to their visual and functional capabilities and limits. These manifest in forms that emerge from experiments in visually attempting to expand the interstices of her thoughts into material exploration. Making Visible explores a minuscular crack between these moments in time and thought, underscoring Sultana’s attempt to enter that crevice and push open these interstices, revealing a concealed space that remains her own.
Ayesha Sultana (b. 1984 in Jashore, Bangladesh) lives and works in Atlanta, USA.
Ayesha Sultana (b. 1984 in Jashore, Bangladesh) lives and works in Atlanta, USA.
