Overall exhibition view 1
Overall exhibition view 2
Overall exhibition view 3
Installation view of two works in conversation:
Medha Bhatt’s “Textile-as-Letter” and Surabhi Ghosh’s “Deliberate (Cloth)”.
Installation view of “Within/Without”. 2022. Glass beads, nylon thread. Installed from within drop ceiling. Seen here with “Squaring Circles” in the background.
Installation view of “Deliberate (Cloth)” with “Within/Without” and “Squaring Circles” in the background.
Detail: “Deliberate (Cloth)”. 2022. Cotton fabric, water-based ink, polyester thread, steel pins.
Detail: “Deliberate (Cloth)”
“Squaring Circles”. First half of 2022 version for Confederation Centre Art Gallery. Upholstery vinyl, steel pins.
“Squaring Circles”. Second half of 2022 version for Confederation Centre Art Gallery.
Detail: “Squaring Circles”
Detail: “Squaring Circles”
“Taking In”. 2022. Glass beads, nylon thread, steel pins.
Detail of “Within/Without” with “Taking In” in the background.
Detail: “Taking In”
Detail: “Taking In”
Detail: “Within/Without”
Detail: “Within/Without”
Detail: “Within/Without”
“9:1 (Circle Packing)”. 2022. Colored sands on plinths. Collaborative work with Sarah Nance.
Detail: “9:1 (Circle Packing)”. Collaborative work with Sarah Nance.
Detail: “9:1 (Circle Packing)”. Collaborative work with Sarah Nance.
Detail: “9:1 (Circle Packing)”. Collaborative work with Sarah Nance.
Detail: “9:1 (Circle Packing)”. Collaborative work with Sarah Nance.
Detail of “Ananta Reborn” (2017). Upholstery vinyl.
Medha Bhatt. “Textile-as-Letter”. 2022.
Part of an ongoing conversation between artists Surabhi Ghosh and Medha Bhatt.
Detail of Medha Bhatt’s “Textile-as-Letter”.
Detail of Medha Bhatt’s “Textile-as-Letter”.
Detail of Medha Bhatt’s “Textile-as-Letter”.
What’s Mine is Yours
Solo Exhibition: October 22, 2022 – February 26, 2023
Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
This exhibition surveys the last decade of Montreal-based Surabhi Ghosh’s sculptural work, including several collaborations and a new piece, Within / Without. The artist’s practice frequently employs patterning, modularity, and repetition, as well as the material and formal qualities of textiles to create installations that are flexible and responsive to different architectural contexts
Who “owns” an artistic work? Is it collective property, the product of a cultural tradition? Is it the product of an individual genius? Is the owner whomever has the means to possess it? What’s mine is yours. The exhibition’s title, chosen by the artist, alludes to the broader social, political, cultural, even emotional implications of what might first appear to be an austere and abstract approach to sculpture, grounded in the humble materials and anonymous labour of a craft tradition, and the seamless rationality of modern design. Using accessible, non-precious, sometimes even discarded materials, and capitalizing on their resistant strength as well as their adaptability, Ghosh transforms use-value into “thought-value”.
The work reflects on the creative potential an ethos of anonymity, collective creation, structure dependent on patient patterning, and resistance to the cult of individualism and private property. At the same time, she asserts her own personal intervention, distinct from the public cultural politics of nation-building, employing both the position of the artist and the site of the gallery as mediators between isolation and incorporation.
— Pan Wendt, Curator
Photos by Jean-Sebastien Duchesne
Warmest thanks to Sarah Nance, Medha Bhatt, and Anne Wilson for their ongoing collaboration; to Pan Wendt, Gerald Beaulieu, Jill McRae, Kathleen MacKinnon, Sodam Jeong, and Kevin Rice for their support both on and off site; and to Théo Bignon, Amélie Bélanger, Gisèle Suzor-Morin, Janina Anderson for their assistance in the studio.