JEHANGIR NICHOLSON ART FOUNDATION
This exhibition was presented on occasion of the CSMVS Museum's centenary. It brought together an extensive body of Sahej Rahal's work to resonate with the underpinnings of the Museum in telling stories of civilisations. Rahal references folklore, science fiction, literature, urban legends, mythologies and video-games to portray a futuristic ethnographic display of objects. 'Ancestors' staged sculptural installations, drawings, paintings, writings, performance and an AI programme as an archaeological tomb-site of the future. The show presented an immersive installation that the artist conjured from a curious case of a burial urn from the post-Harappan Chalcolithic excavation site of Inamgaon in Maharashtra. Drawing from speculative archaeology, Rahal built a parallel account that conceived of a generation that evolves after the extinction of human kind. Visitors enter a make-believe crypt with imagined relics of a posthuman civilisation.
Using archaeology as a metaphor, the Museum becomes a space to interrogate narratives that shape the world, its inhabitants and belief-systems through a consideration of the human, ecological and digital imprints that are left behind.
Sahej was the recipient of the first Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation (SSAF) Installation Art Grant in 2019. This project was made possible by the support of the SSAF.
Read the full curatorial note:
Short Stories by Sahej Rahal
Exhibition catalogue: Ancestors | Sahej Rahal
Price: 650 (Shipping cost not included)
2022, 28 x 24 cms, paperback, 60 pages
ISBN: 978-81-957115-1-2
To purchase: Write to us at connect@jnaf.org
Sahej Rahal is primarily a storyteller. He weaves together fact and fiction, to create counter-mythologies that interrogate narratives that shape the present. This myth-world takes the shape of sculptures, performances, films, paintings, installations, and AI programs, that he creates by drawing upon sources ranging from local legends to science fiction. By bringing these into dialogue with each other, Rahal creates scenarios where indeterminate beings emerge from the cracks in our civilization. Rahal’s participation in group and solo exhibitions includes the Liverpool Biennial, the Kochi Biennale, the Vancouver Biennale, the MACRO Museum Rome, Kadist SF, ACCA Melbourne, CCA Glasgow. He is the recipient of the Cove Park/Henry Moore Fellowship, Akademie Schloss Solitude Fellowship and most recently the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation Installation Art Grant in 2019.
