Shrine Empire gallery to present Chris Basumatary’s debut solo exhibition from April 12

The Shrine Empire Gallery in Delhi will present the debut solo exhibition of Chris Basumatary titled ‘I have so much poetry inside me, but it is in the wrong language’ from April 12 to May 11.

Basumatary, who grew up next to a rivulet (Chota Rangeet) near Darjeeling in West Bengal, has developed an intimate relationship with water.

For Basumatary, art is a channel to speak about the intricacies of trans-identity through the concepts of water, stone, and flesh.

The exhibition will present a glimpse of the memories, desires, and fears of the artist. By converting cement and concrete into water and paint into flesh, Basumatary presents a conversation between the physicality of the materials and the transformative potential they hold.

“The exhibition is an attempt to portray the intense emotions felt by a marginalised individual that usually cannot be expressed linearly,” Basumatary said.

“The artist’s intimate and personal works speak to a wider politics of visibility and those that silently bear witness to the violence in the margins of society. They also situate him in the trajectory of artists in India and elsewhere who address the precarity of trans-identities,” said Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi, the curator of the exhibition.

Shefali Somani and Anahita Taneja, co-directors of Shrine Empire, added, “The artistic language of Basumatary embodies a poetic and fragile quality which drew us to his work. His abstract forms hold and mask the narratives of pain and suffering. I strongly feel that his work weaves into the ongoing vision of the Shrine Empire, and we are excited to be hosting his debut solo exhibition at the gallery.”