MILES AHEAD… AND MORE TO TRAVEL
Presented by Art Konsult and curated by Jyoti A Kathpalia, Dr Sushma Yadav’s solo exhibition of etchings –MILES AHEAD … AND MORE TO TRAVEL is on show at New Delhi from 1 March 2023 till 30 March 2023.
VENUE/ VISUAL ART GALLERY INDIAN HABITAT CENTRE/ LODHI ROAD/ NEW DELHI
DATE/ 1 – 10 MARCH 2023/10.30 AM – 7.00 PM/
The venue of the Show will be changed to:
VENUE/ART KUNSULT/ 1 BASEMENT/HAUZKHAS VILLAGE/ NEW DELHI/
DATE/10 -30 MARCH 2023/ 10.30 AM – 7.00 PM/
“Dr Sushma Yadav’s solo exhibition is a pictorial journey of a woman artist as she traverses emotional and physical realms between the crowds and the self, with each milestone, each etching, evocatively rife with artistic achievement and telling the story of humanity through the imaginative lens of a woman,” says the famous art critic and curator Jyoti A Kathpalia, New Delhi.
“Etching is a black and white medium and I saw everything in two parts so much so that I dream also in two tones!”, renowned artist and highly acclaimed printmaker Dr. Sushma Yadhav says.
“The eminent, veteran printmaker Anupam Sud has been her mentor and guide under whose tutelage Dr. Sushma Yadav has learnt the finer aspects of printmaking and honed her skills. It is therefore not surprising that Dr. Sushma’s etchings display a remarkable level of sophistication and a strong conceptual grasp of both technique and subject.
The arduous and extremely meticulous technique of printmaking and etching that Dr. Sushma specialises in, has required tremendous dedication and sustained efforts over a number of years working in her studio. Having completed a stupendous body of work at this young age excelling in artistic innovation and skill, Dr. Sushma Yadav is at an extremely exciting juncture in the Indian printmaking scape today,” says Jyoti A Kathpalia.
One of the most distinctive and definitive attributes of the artist are her big etching works – working on two plates and three plates together which involves continually working on the plates together for extended periods of time so as to maintain tonal and visual agreement,” says the Curator.
“Dr. Sushma Yadav’s etchings capture a variety of subjects: the world of pain and suffering, angst, grief, contemplation. On the other hand, the very medium of print also lends itself to graphic commentary, a ludic play with reality as well as a starkness of vision in the stylised interplay of light and darkness, of black and white. Dr. Sushma Yadav’s etchings exemplify this variety and reach.
The etchings on display in this show hearken back as well as look forward to universal human emotions. These emotions are then intermixed and interweaved with diverse people. The intermingling of races and groups point towards an underlying commonality of human experience so very important to envision today in a world that is riven by divisions and inequalities.
Dr. Sushma Yadav’s etchings also creatively express human relationships, the oscillations between love and ego, between hope and grief, between women as temptresses and women in their daily household tasks and finally the starkness of women inmates as they stare with blank eyes devoid of hope or joy.
Dr. Sushma Yadav’s prints elaborate a breath-taking array of a woman’s world. Sushma Yadav in many of her prints depicts the kitchen scenes and scenes of partaking of food. Also significant is the coexistence of a buffet or a meal and also simultaneously a look at the kitchen where the meal is prepared. Or the act of dressing in finery as in the remarkably intricate and evocative tryptic
‘Let me Dressup for Mine’ also has a counterpoint in the etchings which look behind the scenes to areas of washing clothes and their drying on clotheslines. These then become important signifiers of the interposition of the private realms (where women are relegated) into the public domain. Significant also is the easy assurance with which the lingerie of women is displayed as hanging on the clotheslines.
The etchings portraying women’s work behind the scenes are a strong statement of a reality that exists that is oft forgotten in worldly engagements. Moreover, a foregrounding of the hidden and the private female undergarments hitherto associated with shame is reversed as they become a part of the sacredness as the title of this set of artworks ‘Sacred Story’ triumphantly proclaims,” the famous Curator Jyoti A Kathpalia describes in detail about the intricate depiction of marvellous artworks on show.
