Akshita Gandhi (India, 1988) is a Mumbai-based photographer and multimedia artist. Gandhi manipulates her images by painting over them, working digitally with repetition and distortion, and collaging to study obscurity/perceptibility and construction/deconstruction, broadening the boundaries of the photographic medium. Gandhi has an MFA and has had her work shown in twenty-seven galleries and art fairs around Asia, Europe, India, the Middle East, and the United States. She’s also worked with the United Nations Chamber of Music Society, Katerblau, a German music festival, New York designer Frank DeBourge, and India’s Kurtees, a fashion label, and Celesté, a premium tea brand.
Is India truly free seventy-five years after its independence? The Indian Independence Act, which established India’s independence from British imperialism, went into effect in August 1947. However, the act partitioned India, causing significant social divisions. What is India’s post-colonial identity now, amidst social and political upheaval and increasing censorship? And how does the surrounding architecture reflect the residents’ vitality and spirit?
Photographer and multimedia artist Akshita Gandhi strives to answer these questions in her solo exhibition “A Love Letter To My Home.” Presented at The Nehru Centre by Gabriel Fine Arts to celebrate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence, Gandhi’s work casts new light on Mumbai and Udaipur, revealing cityscapes in flux and essentially coming undone.
For its vibrancy, chaos, and potential for upward mobility, Mumbai is known as the “City of Dreams.” Gandhi’s images show futuristic skyscrapers rising above low-income neighbourhoods and postcolonial architecture. Chawls, tenements, British imperialist architecture, and high-rises dominate “Pincode,” a collection of digitally reworked pictures in and around popular sites such as the racecourse, Horniman Circle, Colaba, and Bhendi Bazaar. They portray a lesser-known aspect of the city at night: peaceful and motionless, almost otherworldly. Obfuscated windows and doors, a symbol of inaccessibility, limit the viewer’s entry point into the life of city people. They allude to the increasing censorship in India’s media and cultural sector, an issue that reappears in Gandhi’s past work. Through repetition and distortion, Gandhi explores stability and instability within image and memory.
The paintings on display in her “Fluid” series are more impassioned. The artist has splashed, smeared, and brushed paint on pictures of Mumbai’s diverse architecture and material culture, resulting in a sense of disjointedness, vibrancy, and monumentality. These mixed media pieces, in stark contrast to her photographs, portray the city’s frenetic vitality and colourful dynamism.
Beyond Mumbai, the exhibition features images taken by Gandhi while in Udaipur. She concentrates on short houses atop businesses in the city’s town centre, rather than the grand Rajput palaces that draw tourists to the area. To native audiences, her warm-toned photographs provide a sense of familiarity, while to outsiders, they provide a mix of local and worldwide reference points.
The exhibition will also feature an installation that incorporates parts from the images and allows people to sit and listen to an immersive sound composition inspired by India’s unique cacophony.
Gandhi struggled to comprehend the idea of “home” and “freedom” after studying in an international education system and coming from a patriarchal society and traditional cultural background. Nonetheless, while her work is a love letter to cities, it also examines the conflict and mayhem that exists between forces of tradition and modern life.
A Love Letter To My Home. by Akshita Gandhi runs at The Nehru Centre 23-27 May
2022. For more information visit www.gabrielfinearts.com
Q&A with the Akshita Gandhi
Self-taught or art school?
Mostly self-taught. Did a few foundation courses in art school, which definitely helped shape my style.
If you could own one work of art what would it be?
One of Giacometti’s large sculptures or Claude Monet’s Water Lilies.
How would you describe your style?
My style is mostly abstract; oscillating between reality and fantasy.
Is narrative important within your work?
Yes, the narrative is definitely very important within my works. The current pieces on display have a series of photographs with closed doors and windows, which represent inaccessibility. This idea links back to the narrative of censorship in India, which influences the outcome of the piece.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
Cindy Sherman because her iconic and performative photography has created extremely powerful works. The way she layers through her disguises and constructs and deconstructs has also influenced the way I create my photographs of the urban landscape, layering and deconstruction. Hans op de Beeck, his representation of mundane every life in noir is beautiful yet thought-provoking of mortality. The intricacy of his sculptures is a visual treat.
What or who inspires your art?
Everything from culture to geometry, from urban landscapes to reflections. I see art everywhere and am constantly trying to create art with any structure or visual I find interesting.
Are there any recurring themes within your work and can you tell us about them?
All my works have one common denominator and that is the urban landscape and architecture of different cities and places. With India, I have explored the social and visual ramifications of India’s capitalist structure and gentrification of the “old.” Structures are witnesses to traditions, and history and tell us so much about the place. I believe the “architecture” of places is a recurring theme in all my works.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
My studio is in Mumbai, India. However, I also have a small room in my apartment that is white with a chest of drawers, where I work out of. My studio is a large basement at my parent’s house that overlooks their garden and has ample sunlight, stark white walls and lots of tables. I like clean white studio spaces because my works have so much colour, white helps me see better and is the respite I need when taking a break from creating.
Do you have any studio rituals?
Playing the correct genre of music, staring at my piece while listening to a few tracks. Once I have some vague clarity of what I want to do, I dive right in. The unpredictability of my medium can make the canvas look completely different from what I had imagined so I have to gather myself first, which always happens via music. It’s a big part of my process.
What are you working on currently?
I am currently working on a new mixed media piece, an embroidered piece and re-working some old photographs of Bombay.
Where can we buy your art?
Through me – I get queries via Instagram, email, etc. or through Gabriel Fine Arts.
What materials do you use?
My photographs are taken with a Fujifilm xt100 and are edited on my MacBook. My mixed media works use a printed canvas, acrylics, fluid and pour paint, gold leafing, crystals, collage, markers, ink, stickers and resin.
