In the Absence of Writing

The Gujral Foundation at 24 Jor Bagh, New Delhi

February 1 to February 28, 2019

The Gujral Foundation is delighted to present Astha Butail’s solo exhibition In the Absence of Writing at 24 Jor Bagh, New Delhi from 1-28 February 2019. The exhibition is a culmination of a year-long journey Butail undertook in researching living traditions that are passed on to generations through teaching and oral poetry. Her research is focussed on the Indian Vedic traditions, Zoroastrian Avesta, and Jewish Oral Torah including their respective linguistic families Sanskrit, Avestan, and Hebrew. The artist travelled to Varanasi, several towns in South India, Yazd, Jerusalem, and London, where she observed and recorded different memory techniques, as well as interviewed scholars, students and practitioners of each tradition.

In the Absence of Writing summarises Butail’s journey and experiences in a suite of works whose titles are fragments of hymns from the Rig Veda. She uses a range of media to offer glimpses into the architecture of collective memory using video, sound, sculpture and interactive installations–to respond to the notions of space and time, values and culture, history and identity. In addition, her multidimensional approach interweaves the five elements of nature with our five senses, making the artworks interactive as well as experiential.

In oral traditions, sound and pronunciation are key, and knowledge is often memorised and transferred using mathematical patterns. From an artist’s perspective, Butail subtly incorporates these algorithms in her work by using geometry and exploring how different composite elements of an entity relate to its whole. A continuation her earlier work titled A Story within a Story (2012 – ongoing) can be seen in the video pieces and interactive installation Secrets are Secrets which invites viewers to contribute
their idea of the water level in their body.

In an age where access to information is quick and devoid of human contact, In the Absence of Writing reconnects us to a world of co-existence, where knowledge is shared and created anew through a deep and sustained process of interaction.