Ayesha Sultana’s 'Outside the Field of View' Exhibition Begins

Report by Santanu Ganguly: Experimenter presents Ayesha Sultana’s first solo exhibition, Outside the Field of View, starting 9 May 2014. Rooted in process and the act of making, the exhibition provides an insight into her ongoing investigation of drawing, of seeing space in continuum, of exploring gaps in visual memory and of looking at the periphery and what is overlooked in plain sight.

In a constantly evolving process, Sultana’s work cannot be identified as belonging to a single artistic tendency. She concurrently works in different mediums and techniques, but with a specific interest in the features of materials she uses in the act of making. This leads to other ways of looking and engaging, in the relevance of formal properties of various materials and the depth of meaning of the medium itself. Having discarded the narrative, she often uses drawing as a verb, of 'doing' whether by cutting, folding, piercing, layering, recording, tracing, removing, scratching and so on. A pair of works in the exhibition, made by photocopying for instance, are an extension of that process of investigation, taking its initial source from photography, and later enlarging and creating multiple copies of the same.

An attempt to make visible or to delve into what one can see, and simultaneously translating the visual information, is what engages Sultana. Through the primacy of drawing, this act of looking is to assimilate the experience of her surroundings and space. Space to Sultana seems relational, a field emerging as a result of matter and its parts, in the movement or weight of its fragments, not necessarily marked by a beginning or an end but a structure or a space that never ends – the periphery.

In another body of work, with found and her own photographs, an atmosphere of transience, a kind of abstracted, banal landscape emerges. The pictures may seem groundless, sometimes partially obliterated through solarizing and deliberate scratching off the surface.

The graphite drawings present configurations and arrangements of geometric shapes and spatial structures, in a frame-by-frame progression of image and time, once again bringing forth her interest in the visual understanding of continuation, direction and possibly a form of meditative infinity. On a more tangible level, the smooth surface of the paper is dark but reflective, creating frictions and ruptures and at times resembling metal; while revealing the mineral attributes of graphite and hence referring to the tension produced between the delicate, malleable quality of paper and the austere, detached physicality of graphite.

Counter tendencies of movement and stasis are also evident as an attempt to generate emptiness by filling up the surface. Through other elemental gestures and implications of plotting, measuring and erasure, splicing and filling in, Sultana makes whole, an image that is contained, yet changing. On the other hand, the repetitive marks of the graphite build up a rhythmic field, creating an overall tension that seems to act as a veil to some kind of disclosure.

Born in Jessore, Bangladesh, in 1984, Ayesha Sultana received a BFA in Visual Arts (2007) and subsequently a Post-Graduate Diploma in Art Education (2008) at the Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. From 2007-2009 she taught as Lecturer at the School of Visual Arts and Design at Beacon

house National University. Recent group exhibitions include B/Desh, Dhaka Art Summit, curated by Deepak Ananth; Cross-Casting, Britto Space, Dhaka, curated by Mahbubur Rahman; Listen Up! New Delhi, curated by Diana Campbell-Betancourt & Tim Goosens (all 2014); Samdani Art Foundation stand, India Art Fair, Delhi (2013); Senses 7, Dhaka Art Center; Freefall, Bengal Art Lounge, curated by Giorgio Guglielmino (2012); Rise to Ruin, Alhamra Art Gallery,

Lahore (2010) amongst others. Sultana recently completed a curatorial research residency at Gasworks, London (2013). She is a member of the Dhaka based artist run organisation, Britto Arts Trust. She is also the recipient of the Samdani Art Award 2014.

 

Experimenter was envisioned and started by Prateek & Priyanka Raja in 2009. Experimenter goes outside the hyper-commercial imperatives of the Indian art market, highlighting instead experimental and alternative artists from the entire South Asian subcontinent and artists globally who have a South Asian connection to their practice. Experimenter represents and manages the careers of some of the most exciting and celebrated contemporary artists from South Asia and the rest of the world, including, Bani Abidi, Raqs Media Collective, Naeem Mohaiemen,CAMP, Adip Dutta, Rathin Barman, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Mehreen Murtaza, Sanchayan Ghosh & Hajra Wahed. Experimenter’s artists exhibit at some of the most important international exhibitions and biennials like La Biennial de Venezia, Sao Paulo Biennale, dOCUMENTA, Sharjah Biennial amongst others and in museums such as New Museum NY, Guggenheim, NY, MoMA NY, Tate Modern, London, British Museum, London, MARCO, Rome, LACMA, SFMoMA, The BALTIC amongst several others. Experimenter also participates in major international art fairs such as Art Basel, Basel, Frieze Art Fair, London, Frieze, New York, Art Dubai, Dhaka Art Summit and India Art Fair.

AYESHA SULTANA

Outside the Field of View9 May – 26 June
Opening Preview: Friday, May 9, 6 – 8 pm