DependsWho You Ask – [TEXAS] – gabriel Diego Delgad
From overpowering essences of the tangible
to implied metaphysical and spiritual realms,
the curated show ’Texas Tough’, displays
four solo shows by women at the Blue Star
Contemporary Museum, Texas. Indian born,
Houston based artist Amita Bhatt, makes her
presence felt with her large scale installation
works ‘Depends Who You Ask’ addressing her
own disconcerting confusions of belonging and
recollections of being a personal and a social
individual, observes Gabriel Diego Delgado.
For three months Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum, Texas, is
held captive by four women solo exhibitions, each radiating a unique
spiritual sense of some sort of artistic shamanism and eerie existence;
the kind of metaphysical vibe that their staffers will need to expel by
burning incense in the galleries after the de-installation – cleansing
the museum of a certain unmistakable and indisputable mojo brought
in by nature, beast, skeletal remains and material explorations.
This quadrant of museum exhibitions titled Texas Tough features
Jill Bedgood, Amita Bhatt, Sharon Kopriva, and Sherry Owens, each
laying claim to coveted sections of the museum; installing work that
seems to carefully activate each nook and crevice of their spatial
divides of artistic devotion.
Although Sharon Kopriva, Jill Bedgood, and Sherry Owens
entrench the museum with undeniable spiritual essences on a
conceptual as well as somatic level, however, one artist stands out for
her simplistic attack of transcendent transgressions. Aware of her own
confused presence in this unrelenting universe, Amita Bhatt delivers
a riveting installation of larger-than-life charcoal drawings that make
us ponder our own perspective of right and wrong; a meditative
ambience of confusing religious interpretations.
This skirted back section labeled the Project Room is encompassed
with, “Depends Who You Ask”, a solo exhibition by this Houston
based- India born artist consisting of 13 large drawings on unprimed
canvases, measuring 9 x 12 ft. that cover the exhibition space floor
to ceiling. Audiences are greeted by a hodge-podge of demonic
caricatures and quasi-religious narratives of ambiguous sutras and
ritualistic renditions inspired by Hindu mythology, current political
affairs, and scholarly publications.
With twisted bodies and raw carnage; gods and mortals share an
intrepid, transient space and unworldly breadth – each entangled with
intersecting limbs; a woven dialogue of lessons learned and questions
pondered with a personified codex of visual dichotomies. It’s hard to
distinguish who is enslaving who and why. But, none the less, we are
held captive by our own misguided understanding of each and everyone’s
role in this demonic dance of dastardly dimensions; we are powe