Those who have followed New Delhi-based artist Gigi Scaria’s work would be familiar with his ‘horse.’ That’s his well-known mixed media work, titled “Someone left a horse on the shore,” made of wood, mirror glass, metal wheels and paint. That wood horse has always evoked wonder, and its picture sold well at Saffronart auction in March 2008, fetching $6,370 (approx. Rs 2.42 lakh at the then exchange rate). That horse is now in the US, and is going to be on display at Scaria’s solo exhibition at the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St Louis, Missouri, beginning tomorrow.Titled “Time,” it is curated by the park’s curator of exhibitions, Dana Turkovic. The centre of attraction will be the installation “Woodhenge,” 2016. Through this work, Scaria explores the layers of ancient cultures as they get subsumed in the world’s mega-cities and reflects on the unique form of city-building that exists in St. Louis by cross-pollinating the disappearing architecture and symbols from New Delhi with the Woodhenge at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. For those not clued in, Cahokia Mounds, some 13 km north-east of St Louis, Missouri, is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. It is a pre-eminent example of a cultural, religious, and economic centre of the Mississippian culture (800 AD –1350 AD), which extended throughout the Mississippi Valley and the south-eastern United States. This agricultural society may have had a population of 10,000–20,000 at its peak between 1050 AD and 1150 AD, which was equivalent to the population of many European cities at that time.“Woodhenge” is an epitome of Scaria’s practice that has focussed on “social mapping,” enquiring into territorial, cultural, environmental or the hierarchic systems of global communities. Scaria has married this line of enquiry to art, creating timeless works on the themes of time, migration, community collapse and the beauty in labor and collaboration among others.Scaria, who has engaged with various urban phenomena through a variety of his works, says about his new exhibition, “This show is an attempt to observe the intricacies of the phenomena called ‘time.’ Memories and histories of our ‘time’ are slipping into the whirlpool of change, which is only understood by the notion called ‘speed.’ Invoking the Mounds at Cahokia to the present-day crisis of widespread migrant population, “Time” tries to grab our time through many perspectives. This is the first time my large-scale sculptural work will be exhibited in a public space abroad. I am really excited for this opportunity at Laumeier, and am looking forward to the interaction of the Park’s visitors with my work.”Scaria, one of the better-known contemporary artists of India, was born in 1973 in Kothanalloor, Kerala. After acquiring his Bachelor’s degree in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Thiruvananthapuram, he shifted to New Delhi where he received his MFA in Painting from Jamia Millia University. His works have been included in a number of important exhibitions and venues, most notably, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2014 (this work will also be shown at the Laumeier Sculpture Park), the India Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, the 3rd Singapore Biennale and the Prague Biennale, all in 2011.— The exhibition runs at Laumeier Sculpture Park, 12580 Rott Road, Saint Louis, Missouri, 63127, from April 16 through August 14. Entry to the park is free and it remains open from 8am till half hour past sunset.Follow@ARTINFOIndia
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