17th October-23rd October 2015
FROM THE CITY OF THE EARTHMOVERS – Some Retrievals, Some Remainders, Some Reminders presented our sister city Mumbai in its old avatar- Bombay. For the period of one week, the Centre was adorned with jewels of locations from the old city.
Resting on the roadside with fellow labourers, a little boy studying in a noisy chawl or a cat peeking through a doorway- possibly having smelt a fishmonger’s offering. Anjali Purohit’s offering of a lost city was proof enough of her love affair with it.
The present show, From the City of the Earthmovers – Some Retrievals, Some Remainders, Some Reminders tries to record and retrieve that which we are losing in the process of this city transforming so rapidly. Mills give way to malls, expansive chawls with teakwood rafters and wide wooden staircases worn down by several generations of footfall make way for cold towers of glass and chrome, the welcoming Irani cafe at every street corner is eased out by lounges, restobars and pubs, communities scatter before the massive JCB earthmovers …and the megapolis carries out many erasures. In the face of this rapid transformation we obliterate many aspects that have symbolized the ethos of the city.
About the artist
Anjali Purohit is an artist and a writer based in Mumbai. She has been exhibiting her paintings in India and abroad for the past 15 years. This exhibition tries to record and retrieve that which we are losing in the process of this city’s transformation. Her paintings seek to portray a few reminders from the margins and from the marginalized.
