Elementa

View Original

The Missing One at OCA: sci fi art from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The vantage point for The Missing One Gaganendranath TagoresResurrection, 1922.

In the new exhibition at OCA, language and technology common to the field of science fiction creates the backdrop to an exploration of human nature and how we position ourselves in an ever-expanding environment.

A painting from 1922 by the seminal Indian modernist Gaganendranath Tagore serves as a vantage point for the exhibition. The painting, which is loosely based on what is known as a preliminary science fiction story written in the Bengali language, depicts the ascending of a humanized entity to a celestial or spatial sphere removed of its earthly bounds

This cosmological quest creates a reference point for a broader narrative which includes the rest of the exhibition's mainly contemporary works. Stardust, cosmic waste, encounters with the other and the concept of alienation are some of a vast area of themes discussed in works which span from depiction of performances to digital media.

The Missing one thus brings forth a sense of spatial and temporal alteration where the concepts and belief systems that are closely integrated in our earthbound reality is put into question.

Subliminal altercation of signs and symbols creates a sense of a distinct counter cultural aesthetic, seldom seen depicted in a European context.

The Exhibition curated by Nadia Raza, Curator at Tate Modern, consists of contemporary works from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and is part of a new initiative by OCA to put attention on artistic debates and practices from a global scene rarely on view in Norway. The exhibition will be followed by a solo exhibition by the Indian artist Vivan Sundaram in 2018.

The exhibition is on view until the 15th of Januar

Learn more at http://oca.no/news/9158/the-missing-one

An interview with Nada Raza, curator for The Missing One, from Cobo:
https://www.cobosocial.com/art-and-design/the-missing-one-with-nada-raza-assistant-curator-at-tate-modern/

Ronnni Ahmmed Time Machine, 2016. Courtesy of the artist.

Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi's Magical Carpet II, 2005-2016, created through the use of laser print and coloured light bulbs gives the impression of levitation in the becoming of a digital age.

Firoz Mahmud's "Soaked Dream" light boxes + Zihan Karim's Eye from 2014 appearing as an all seing divine being in one of the museum architecture's cul-de-sac”.

View of the exhibition showing the prints by Fahd Burki.