Growing Like A Tree, held by the Ishara Art Foundation at Alserkal, is Sohrab Hura’s inaugural curatorial project as a photographer and filmmaker along with the presentation of several artists and collectives never before shown institutionally in a regional and international context. The exhibition will be on view at Ishara Art Foundation from 20 January 2021 to 20 May 2021.
Tackling themes such as changing cities, collective memory, the environment, interconnectedness, the politics of exclusion, collective memory, and public space, these works that showcase the photography of 14 different artists from around the world illustrates a strong sense of community and shared meanings with a focus on contemporary art.
Sohrab Hura’s curated exhibition focuses on a network of past and present collaborators with 14 artists and collectives from countries all over the world, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore and Germany. It seeks to expand the framework of boundaries set out by the geographical context of South Asia.
The ensemble of artists and collectives in the exhibition includes Aishwarya Arumbakkam, Anjali House, Bunu Dhungana, Farah Mulla, Jaisingh Nageswaran, Katrin Koenning, Munem Wasif, Nida Mehboob, Nepal Picture Library, Reetu Sattar, Sarker Protick, Sathish Kumar, Sean Lee, and Yu Yu Myint Than, along with site-specific interventions by Sohrab Hura.
Hura’s individual and collective journeys through photography and moving image over the years have presented both a form of rooting and uprooting of places as markers of identity. Together they create a space where multiple voices and experiences are brought into dialogue with one another, capturing dualities in which organic growth is matched with resource extraction, the archival is juxtaposed with the contemporary, and the magic of the mundane is seen through children’s eyes.
In Hura’s own words, “What I’ve been seeing over the years are collective flows in terms of movement and exchange of photographers across political, geographical and cultural boundaries. An osmosis-like relationship with photographers across borders has started to seep through with each one searching for new ways to grow as artists and having at stake something in common that is far more urgent than photography.”
Growing Like A Tree will be accompanied by physical and virtual tours, educational and public online programmes, newly commissioned artist texts and artist conversations over the duration of the show.
