Experimenter presents Layl, an exhibition by Ayesha Sultana and Sakshi Gupta at Experimenter – Colaba, Mumbai.
What happens when night approaches the hour in which time is no longer linear? When night transcends itself, transporting one to a threshold, what happens where they may surrender to their innermost feelings of turmoil? What happens, when, before the break of dawn, one claims control of the self one last time before letting go?
Layl, the darkest interval of the night, is where this exhibition by Ayesha Sultana and Sakshi Gupta finds its premise. Layl alludes to both the psychological and physical layers of this all-consuming darkness; nestled within lies one’s underlying strength. Residual imprints, mark-making, the resilience of beaten scraps of metal, a fallen drape, exhaled breath globules, the fragility of glass, the night sea, flora and fauna breaking through the surface, become visceral reminders of what remains and endures from the sustained agitation, long after the metaphorical night is over. The works of Sultana and Gupta emerge from this space of introspection, tracing a movement through inner unrest towards an encounter with the self.
