Pushpamala N.
24 Mar - 19 Apr 2008
PUSHPAMALA N.
"Paris Autumn"
March 24th to April 19th, 2008
For her second solo exhibition with Nature Morte, Pushpamala N. will present a new body of works entitled "Paris Autumn." The centerpiece of the show is a 35-minute black-and-white film which has been constructed entirely from still photographs. The film will run continuously throughout the day at the gallery and will be accompanied by framed photographs, posters and an installation which elaborate on the film and its imagery. Diverging from the artist's previous work which examined Indian pictorial conventions and models, this body of work is derived from European film noir and comic books, while utilizing presentation techniques of Indian cinema houses. The preliminary form of the exhibition took place at the Galerie Zurcher in Paris in 2006 and the film has been previously screened at the Bellagio Study Centre of the Rockfeller Foundation in Italy, and the Bose Pacia Gallery, Columbia University and New York University, all in New York City.
Notes on the film: Paris Autumn is a work of fiction in the style of a gothic thriller. The idea for the work came to Pushpamala during a stay in Paris in 2006, where she was invited on a three- month artist residency. While she rented a room in one of the oldest streets in the Marais district, strange happenings began to occur. It was then she realised she was living in the out-houses of the mansion that had once belonged to Gabrielle d'Estrées, King Henri IV's favourite mistress, who died, poisoned no doubt, at the age of twenty-six just as she was about to marry the king.
From that moment on, Pushpamala had to find out about this woman who had come to such a tragic end. Pushpamala's quest began at the Louvre museum, opposite Caravaggio's famous painting The Fortune Teller, and continued to the kitsch atmosphere of the Chapelle des Petits-Augustine, filled with copies of monumental statuary. The action takes place at various points throughout Paris that Pushpamala, stroller and detective graced with the gift of ubiquity, assembles into a strange map: with extenuated perspectives, where the Eiffel Tower and cafés follow images of urban violence. "Pushpamala seems to read the world like a complex and stratified, open and enigmatic literary work that she makes up as she weaves her way through a mysterious urban territory where, right down to the flow of the images, we find the halting nature of the City according to Waler Benjamin, like a succession of paintings put together with brushstrokes." ( Bernard Zürcher)
Credits: Producer: Pushpamala N.; Script and Direction: Pushpamala N.; Photography: Cedric Sartore,
Pushpamala N.; Editing and Sound Design: Sankalp Meshram
Cast: Protagonist: Pushpamala N.; Ghost: Gabrielle Soyer; Cedric: Cedric Vincent;
Friends: Bernard and Gwenolee Zurcher; Computer friend: Cedric Sartore
Biography: Pushpamala N. studied sculpture at the MS University in Baroda, India. Since the mid 1990s she has been mainly working in photo performance and video, exhibiting widely all over India and internationally. She uses women's stories and women's material as a device to explore history, memory and contemporary society. She lives and works in Bangalore.
"Paris Autumn"
March 24th to April 19th, 2008
For her second solo exhibition with Nature Morte, Pushpamala N. will present a new body of works entitled "Paris Autumn." The centerpiece of the show is a 35-minute black-and-white film which has been constructed entirely from still photographs. The film will run continuously throughout the day at the gallery and will be accompanied by framed photographs, posters and an installation which elaborate on the film and its imagery. Diverging from the artist's previous work which examined Indian pictorial conventions and models, this body of work is derived from European film noir and comic books, while utilizing presentation techniques of Indian cinema houses. The preliminary form of the exhibition took place at the Galerie Zurcher in Paris in 2006 and the film has been previously screened at the Bellagio Study Centre of the Rockfeller Foundation in Italy, and the Bose Pacia Gallery, Columbia University and New York University, all in New York City.
Notes on the film: Paris Autumn is a work of fiction in the style of a gothic thriller. The idea for the work came to Pushpamala during a stay in Paris in 2006, where she was invited on a three- month artist residency. While she rented a room in one of the oldest streets in the Marais district, strange happenings began to occur. It was then she realised she was living in the out-houses of the mansion that had once belonged to Gabrielle d'Estrées, King Henri IV's favourite mistress, who died, poisoned no doubt, at the age of twenty-six just as she was about to marry the king.
From that moment on, Pushpamala had to find out about this woman who had come to such a tragic end. Pushpamala's quest began at the Louvre museum, opposite Caravaggio's famous painting The Fortune Teller, and continued to the kitsch atmosphere of the Chapelle des Petits-Augustine, filled with copies of monumental statuary. The action takes place at various points throughout Paris that Pushpamala, stroller and detective graced with the gift of ubiquity, assembles into a strange map: with extenuated perspectives, where the Eiffel Tower and cafés follow images of urban violence. "Pushpamala seems to read the world like a complex and stratified, open and enigmatic literary work that she makes up as she weaves her way through a mysterious urban territory where, right down to the flow of the images, we find the halting nature of the City according to Waler Benjamin, like a succession of paintings put together with brushstrokes." ( Bernard Zürcher)
Credits: Producer: Pushpamala N.; Script and Direction: Pushpamala N.; Photography: Cedric Sartore,
Pushpamala N.; Editing and Sound Design: Sankalp Meshram
Cast: Protagonist: Pushpamala N.; Ghost: Gabrielle Soyer; Cedric: Cedric Vincent;
Friends: Bernard and Gwenolee Zurcher; Computer friend: Cedric Sartore
Biography: Pushpamala N. studied sculpture at the MS University in Baroda, India. Since the mid 1990s she has been mainly working in photo performance and video, exhibiting widely all over India and internationally. She uses women's stories and women's material as a device to explore history, memory and contemporary society. She lives and works in Bangalore.