Mentor

Sharmila Sagara

Sharmila Sagara

Sharmila Sagara with a masters’ degree in Sculpture from Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Vadodara has a teaching experience of more than 25 years at a graduate and postgraduate level. She headed Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad before joining CEPT University as Associate professor and founding faculty of Masters’ programme in Art, design and Communication at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, CEPT University. Later she joined Ahmedabad University to develop liberal arts programme. Sharmila has contributed her critical reviews to art columns in art magazines, vernacular periodicals. Sharmila has curated exhibitions, art camps and hosted international exhibitions in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. At present engaged in research projects and reaching Visual Arts at Anant National University. Sharmila Sagara will be providing her insights and mentorship to the selected applicants of Abhivyakti Edition 3.

Curator

Vyom Mehta

Vyom Mehta

Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural - The Great Dictator Isn’t it a lot easier to love than hate? Much like it is easier, less taxing, to smile than frown. How did the inverse become the norm? When did hate (ing), further extend to sadism? Is it that we are just too many and the universe is responding to this (parasitic nature) by our gradual culling and disintegration. Aren’t we born to love (union, propagate, care)? Saying that, the sub-continent has had a strange relationship with love. Is it possible that we do not quite understand all that love has to offer? We (the sub-continental people) have been subjects to a code, taking away individual franchise, creating, since eternity, a population which does not have the ability to grasp love. Are love and compassion interwoven? What if compassion exists in all of us, at a molecular level and only love can ignite it. Are compassion and violence proportionately bound? As one reduces the other inadvertently increases. Something quite extraordinary happened in recent memory, young adults in 2 extreme ends of the sub-continent, took to the streets, to pelt stones and openly kiss. Both being protests against the establishment, both a response to desiring independence, both wanting a shift from the accepted truths, both for love of the land. The revolutionary love is not about conquering but unifying, of erasing discrimination, standing up for the beaten down, fighting for our earth and all that she bears. The conflicts are multiple and we need multiple resets (and an unmeasurable quantity of love). Does our cultural singularity need diverse narratives? Do we need to examine our history, histories and generate new histories? Can popular truths and morality be questioned? Can we explode love bombs?

Gallery