Thursday, May 19, 2011

Mithu Sen at Espace Louis Vuitton gallery, Taipei

At Taipei’s Espace Louis Vuitton gallery, a show by Mithu Sen has been receiving immense critical acclaim since it was launched earlier this month. She has showcased some really large works and prints on the walls, which apparently denote a ‘mental journey through one’s life’. The works carry a feel of joie de vivre akin to one brought by chirping birds on a colorful foliage.

There are fleeting strokes of picturesque beauty to keep you engrossed - pebbled paths and mountain terrain – alongside uprooted flowering bushes crammed in shopping carts and passing animals on wheels that share space with candle stands plus an avant-garde LV suitcase on a cart.

The exhibit takes place almost a year after one of her most acclaimed series of works ‘Black Candy’ was hosted at Chemould Prescott, Mumbai. Incidentally, the artist was invited last year for the Taipei exhibition by the Vice-president (cultural development) Louis Vuitton, Vita Wong and the Mori Art Museum director, Fumio Nanjo. Their brief was very simple - to create a body of work in tandem with what the world-famous luxury brand stands for...

Mulling over the theme and the subject matter in her Faridabad studio, Mithu Sen opted to replace her frequently used and familiar mediums like blood, teeth tress etc with watercolor on customized Japanese paper. It was sourced from a factory located near Kyoto. She based her work on memories of her childhood across India.

The first set of works that was presented to Nanjo earlier this year was termed as a touch ‘too depressing’. The artist has been quoted as saying: “We spoke after the Tsunami and the curator suggested how there was need for optimism, following darkness and so many deaths.” The artist spent another two weeks to reshape the current body of work as it is now.

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