we are all islands 2
A solo exhibition by Sharmistha Ray
At Mill Hall Compound,
IV/599 Eraveli Road,
Mattancherry, Kochi 02
As we hurtle towards digital realities in the age of technology, the internet and social media,
do we risk the extinction of our sentient consciousness, mediated by touch, human
presence and an appreciation of beauty? Have we all become willful islands, fragments of
humanity adrift in the ocean of virtual connections in a globalised world?
Nine Fish Art Gallery presents we are all islands 2 by Sharmistha Ray. The exhibition is the
second edition of Ray's solo exhibition which was held in Mumbai between October 1 and
November 6, 2016.
Comprising painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and installations, we are all islands 2 marks
a new conceptual direction for the artist, unveiling a bold merger of concepts and practices she has
been experimenting with over the last few years. Through multisensory environments, Ray adapts
the grammar of identity politics to express the germ of her own history, the voyage of discovery
across geographies fuelled in part by departures and arrivals, exile and refuge, in search of lost
time, unrequited loves and the possibility of transcendence in order to examine the nature of
contemporary existence.
Exposure to war, migration and coming out in her formative years provides the basis of Ray's
preoccupation with identity politics, cultural hegemonies and the nature of power. Race, ethnicity,
religion, nationality, sexuality and gender intersect at the crossroads producing multiple
ambivalences at odds with the flatlands of globalisation.
Drawing on postcolonial theory and queer politics, Ray constructs an autobiography of lived
experience, proposing multiple perspectives for the construction of identity. Positing herself as the
subaltern subject/object, she devises a map of her (dis)orientations, continually shifting the line of
her gaze, manipulating the distance between her body and the objects of her desire to navigate the
field of mnemonic disjunctures. Mapping orientation is a way to make sense of time and (in)visibility,
evinced by the nuanced overlaying of cultural references in her work. Personal memory becomes a
weapon, a form of resistance against cultural erasures enforced by the passage of time and
narratives in a state of flux.
Alternating notions of presence, touch, sentience and interiority throughout the exhibition, Ray
compels us to rethink the scope of humanity by devising our own maps of subjective
disorientations.