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‘SHRAPNEL’
Works by VEER MUNSHI
At Latitude 28 and foundation b&g
Veer Munshi with Vivan Sundaram at an exhibition of Veer's works.
An exhibition of Veer Munshi’s works, curated by Ranjit Hoskote opened on
March 3, 2012 at Latitude 28, in Lado Sarai, New Delhi.
Called ‘Shrapnel’, the show displayed three recent bodies of Munshi’s
work: ‘The Chamber’ - a 360 degree canvas simulates a conflict zone. It
shows distortion of everyday life through civil strife, terror and endemic
violence; ‘Pandit Houses’ – a collection of photographs from his ongoing
archive. Munshi presented, for the first time, an invisible side of the
Kashmir story – photographs of the homes abandoned by Pandits forced into
exile. The houses, fallen to ruin, have been reclaimed by neighbours or been
requisitioned by the armed forces. According to the acclaimed critic Ranjit
Hoskote, “The photographs present a stark documentary evidence of the
erasure of the Kashmiri Pandit minority from the life of the Valley. This is
the tragic outcome of a combination of factors: separatist violence and
intolerance, the cynical indifference of the State, the breakdown of trust
between communities.” In a third work, ‘Leaves like Hands of Flame’, Munshi
presents a two-channel video meditation on Kashmir’s predicament.
Its title is taken from a poem by Ranjit Hoskote, which speaks of the
chinar.
Says publisher Harsha Bhatkal, “Veer Munshi’s works are a cry for
peace and secularism, values that we at foundation b&g hold dear. We believe
that art can and should play a constructive role in a civilised society. We
will be happy if ‘Shrapnel’ plays even a small part in this direction.”
The exhibition, a great success, was visited by names from all walks of
life.
Read the entire article in the print edition
of The South Asian Life & Times
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