Sahil Naik’s third solo at the gallery, Specters, Specimens and Ships in Doubt continues to extract patterns between the histories of colonization and non-alignment, through projects of natural history, architectural modernism and the modalities of the Indian Ocean. Through a range of objects in circulation across time and sites, he challenges majoritarian, state-prescribed knowledge with the possibilities of stories and song, rumours and remakes. Staged between four events – the Portuguese fleet laying eyes on the “flaming forests” of Gulmohars in Madagascar; the Gujarati Gainda travelling from Goa to Europe as a gift for the pope; Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in outer space; and the mysterious fire that destroyed the National Museum of Natural History in New Delhi – the exhibition traverses speculative, mystical and conceptual terrains to reconcile with preservation and loss, fluid identities, the search for magic, space quest and the mermaid’s song that led a ship in doubt to solid ground.
– Excerpt from Mario D’Souza's essay for Specters, Specimens and Ships in Doubt.
Sahil Naik’s (b. 1991, lives and works in Goa, India) practice examines the modalities of evidence and truth through, architecture, minor and casual histories, mythology, forensics and the internet. His ongoing project Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism studies the violence of the nation-building project with a focus on South Asia and the non-aligned world. Education: M.V.A (Sculpture), Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda; B.F.A (Sculpture), Goa College of Art. Solo Exhibitions include: 2021, All is water, and to water we must return, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2020, Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2017, Ground Zero, Experimenter, Kolkata. Select Group Exhibitions: 2023, Art Encounters Biennale, Timișoara; 2022, HAZE, Foundazion Elpis, Milan; 2022, Kochi-Muziris Biennale; 2022, Monuments on Paper, VITRINE, Basel; 2019, Urban Reimagined 2.0, Curated By Ravi Agarwal, Serendipity Arts Festival 2019, Goa.
Sahil Naik’s (b. 1991, lives and works in Goa, India) practice examines the modalities of evidence and truth through, architecture, minor and casual histories, mythology, forensics and the internet. His ongoing project Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism studies the violence of the nation-building project with a focus on South Asia and the non-aligned world. Education: M.V.A (Sculpture), Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda; B.F.A (Sculpture), Goa College of Art. Solo Exhibitions include: 2021, All is water, and to water we must return, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2020, Monuments, Mausoleums, Memorials, Modernism, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2017, Ground Zero, Experimenter, Kolkata. Select Group Exhibitions: 2023, Art Encounters Biennale, Timișoara; 2022, HAZE, Foundazion Elpis, Milan; 2022, Kochi-Muziris Biennale; 2022, Monuments on Paper, VITRINE, Basel; 2019, Urban Reimagined 2.0, Curated By Ravi Agarwal, Serendipity Arts Festival 2019, Goa.
