prabhakar pachpute - experimenter · prabhakar pachpute (b. 1986, sasti, maharashtra) lives and...

PRABHAKAR PACHPUTEBENEATH THE PALPABLE

Prabhakar Pachpute

Prabhakar Pachpute (b. 1986, Sasti, Maharashtra) lives and works in Pune, India. Pachpute received his

Bachelor’s in fine arts in sculpture from Indira Kala Sangit University, Khairagarh (Chhattisgarh, 2009) and his

MFA from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (Gujrat, 2011). Recent solo exhibitions include Glasgow

School of Art 2019; Jameel Arts Center, Dubai 2019; National Gallery of Modern Art, (NGMA) Mumbai, 2016.

He was most recently nominated for the coveted Artes Mundi 9 prize. Recent group exhibitions have been held

at Kochi Muziris Biennale, 2018; Dhaka Art Summit, 2018; Yinchuan Biennale, 2018; Bunkier Sztuki, Krakow

Poland, 2017; MCAD, Manila 2016; 44 Salon Nacional de Artistas, Colombia 2016; MACBA Barcelona 2015;

Asia Pacific Triennial 2015; Istanbul Biennale 2015; Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, 2014; Sao Paulo Biennale,

2014; Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, 2013; IFA, Stuttgart, 2013 amongst others. Pachpute is an awardee of

the Asia Arts Game Changer Award by Asia Society 2020 and has been shortlisted for Artes Mundi 9, 2020-21.

BIO

Experimenter presents Beneath The Palpable, Prabhakar Pachpute’s third solo at Experimenter – Ballygunge Place. Reflecting on complex relationships between the crosscurrents that are at play in the battle for resource and power, the exhibition furthers Pachpute’s ongoing interest in mining politics, farmers’ movements and human conflicts with nature.

Over the years, Pachpute’s practice has explored critical enquiries of human society in peril, the accelerating decline of the ecosystem and its repercussions. Whether personal, geographical or environmental, humankind is at the edge of an imminent catastrophe. In Beneath The Palpable, Pachpute’s works stand as a body exposed to the immediate vicissitudes in the ecological landscape. On a personal front, it is also a quest to find answers to the challenges and encounters faced by people in his hometown, a mining village in Maharashtra, Chandrapur.

Pachpute has been participating and documenting several long marches by farmers from rural India into its cities. This coming together of disenfranchised masses of people who have used their own bodies as a last resort to register their protest, seem to him, as indicators of hope. His experiences and interactions with miners and farmers all over the world, permeates his work. Using folklore, local literature and poetry, Pachpute paints and sculpts the disquiet of the agrarian and mining communities, exploitative labour conditions and various forms of protest. Turning his gaze back at Chandrapur, he feels a critical need for collective action that will necessitate change.

A body of sculptures, works on paper, paintings and immersive installations inhabit the space in his third solo at the gallery. Pachpute’s disturbing view of the landscape, animals and human confront the viewer with a dystopian, barren post-industrial land that seems to be a palpable reality. The works in the show are metaphors for the failures of power and how power has destroyed more than built. In a large painting The Relic of Our Time, a powerful vulture is portrayed as a devious figure spreading its wings to witness and then devour the harsh, fragmented landscape. A broken monumental statue in the corner portrays dereliction, and

the fall of justice. Pachpute places mounds of soil as foundations upon which animal, land and human form sculptures merge and are precariously balanced. The use of soil seems to be an extension of life – giving and taking back unconditionally.

In the work The underground nest over the dune, Pachpute reflects on stories of mining and how horses and other animals were intertwined with underground mining activity, and how the animals would eventually go blind and be left inside the mines to be buried. He confronts these harsh anecdotes and excavated histories to reflect upon the harrowing realities birthed by unethical mining practices. The works serve as a jarring reminder that the burden of environmental degradation is now imminent and survival is dependent on coming together.

Pachpute uses personal experiences, research and observation to create characters that confront, subsist, or even succumb to acute exploitation of land and mineral resources. Beneath the Palpable proposes as much a state of disarray as it indicates a chance of optimism. A possibility that something is about to change and that in the afterlife of objects and people who inhabit the landscape today, maybe an alternate legacy exists.

The artist would like to thank Meher Vahid, Rupali Patil, Priyank Bhardwaj, Abhishek Pandey, Sumeet Kurekar, Nikhil Raunak, Somnath Saha and the Experimenter team for their support and generosity to realize this exhibition.

Beneath the Palpable

2020Beneath the PalpableInstallation view

The Relic of Our Time

Watercolour and acrylic paint on canvas 84 in x 192 in each

2020

2020Watercolour and acrylic paint on canvas 84 in x 192 in each

The Relic of Our Time


The Relic of Our Time (Detail)


The Relic of Our Time(Detail)

Rattling Knot I

Acrylic on canvas 121 in x 244 in

2020

2020Acrylic on canvas 121 in x 244 in

Rattling Knot I

2020Acrylic on canvas 121 in x 244 in

Rattling Knot I(Detail)

Rattling Knot II

Red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, wire mesh, soil 30 in x 22 in x 41 in

2020

2020Red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, wire mesh, soil 30 in x 22 in x 41 in

Rattling Knot II

2020Red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, wire mesh, soil 30 in x 22 in x 41 in

Rattling Knot II (Detail)

A march against the lie (IA)

Acrylic and multani mitti on canvas, soil121 in x 183 in

2020

2020Acrylic and multani mitti on canvas, soil121 in x 183 in

A march against the lie (IA)

2020Acrylic and multani mitti on canvas, soil121 in x 183 in

A march against the lie (IA)(Detail)

A march against the lie (IB)

Acrylic and multani mitti on canvas, soil35 in x 308 in

2020

2020Acrylic on canvas35 in x 308 in

A march against the lie (IB)


A march against the lie (IB) (Detail)


A march against the lie (IB)(Detail)

A march against the lie (II)

Stone powder, red clay, metal, wire mesh, wood, gum arabic72 in x 23 in x 70 in

2020

2020Stone powder, red clay, metal, wire mesh, wood, gum arabic72 in x 23 in x 70 in

A march against the lie (II)

2020Stone powder, red clay, metal, wire mesh, wood, gum arabic72 in x 23 in x 70 in

A march against the lie (II) (Detail)

The underground nest over the dune I

Cow dung, husk, cloth, soil, red clay, metal, wire mesh, multani mitti, shadow clay, gum arabic, paper pulp

68 in x 20.5 in x 60 in 2020

2020Cow dung, husk, cloth, soil, red clay, metal, wire mesh, multani mitti, shadow clay, gum arabic, paper pulp | 68 in x 20.5 in x 60 in

The underground nest over the dune I

2020The underground nest over the dune I(Detail)

Cow dung, husk, cloth, soil, red clay, metal, wire mesh, multani mitti, shadow clay, gum arabic, paper pulp | 68 in x 20.5 in x 60 in

The underground nest over the dune II

Charcoal and acrylic on plywood65 in x 37 in

2020

2020The underground nest over the dune II Charcoal and acrylic on plywood65 in x 37 in

The underground nest over the dune III

Charcoal and acrylic on plywood34.5 in x 25 in

2020

2020The underground nest over the dune III Charcoal and acrylic on plywood34.5 in x 25 in

Moving cities

Cow dung, husk, cloth, soil, red clay, metal, wire mesh, multani mitti, shadow clay, gum arabic, paper pulp

15 in x 10 in x 27 in 2020

2020Cow dung, husk, cloth, soil, red clay, metal, wire mesh, multani mitti, shadow clay, gum arabic, paper pulp15 in x 10 in x 27 in

Moving cities

Siren

Rice husk, red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, paper pulp, fenugreek seeds11 in x 6.5 in x 9 in

2020

2020Rice husk, red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, paper pulp, fenugreek seeds11 in x 6.5 in x 9 in

Siren

Anthill Memento

Rice husk, red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, paper pulp, fenugreek seeds8.5 in x 3.5 in x 8.5 in

2020

2020Rice husk, red clay, multani mitti, gum arabic, paper pulp, fenugreek seeds8.5 in x 3.5 in x 8.5 in

Anthill Memento

Boll weevil

Acrylic on stone powder, bamboo, cotton38 in x 24 in x 62 in

2020

2020Acrylic on stone powder, bamboo, cotton38 in x 24 in x 62 in

Boll weevil

2020Acrylic on stone powder, bamboo, cotton38 in x 24 in x 62 in

Boll weevil(Detail)

The retirement of resources

Charcoal and watercolour on plywoodDimensions variable

Suite of 52017

2017Charcoal and watercolour on plywoodDimensions variable | Suite of 5

The retirement of resources

Drawings on paper

Charcoal and watercolour on plywoodDimensions variable

Suite of 52016-2020

2016-2020Mixed media on paperDimensions variable

Drawings on paper

C.V

EDUCATION

2009 B.F.A. in sculpture from Dept. of Sculpture, I.K.S.V.V. Khairagarh (C.G)

2011 M.F.A. in sculpture from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U. Baroda (Gujrat)

AWARDS

2020 Shortlisted for Artes Mundi 9

2020 Asia Arts Game Changer Award by Asia Society

2008 Certificate Award from S.C.Z.C.C. Nagpur, India .

2010 Professor Mahendra Pandya Foundation Award, Baroda, India.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020

Beneath the Palpable, Experimenter - Ballygunge Place, Kolkata

2019

Artist’s Rooms: Prabhakar Pachpute, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE

Political Animal, in collaboration with Prof. Johnny Rodger, Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow, UK

2018

Workers in Progress, Asilo Via Porpora, Milan

2017

Shadows on Arrival at Experimenter, Kolkata

2016

No, It Wasn’t The Locust Cloud at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai

C.V

2013

The Land Eaters at Experimenter, Kolkata

2012

Canary In A Coal Mine at Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, curated by Sumesh Sharma and Zasha Colah.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2019

Searching For Stars Amongst The Crescents, Experimenter - Ballygunge Place, Kolkata

Why Binary should have all the Pun, TIFA working Studio, Pune, India

2018

Possibilities for a Non- Alienated Life, 4th Kochi-Muziris Biennale

Starting from the Desert. Ecologies on the Edge, 2nd Yinchuan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Yichuan

Meanwhile, What about Socialism?, AV festival Newcastle , UK

This Rare Earth - stories from below, in collaboration with Rupali Patil, STUK, Arts Centre in Leuven, Belgium

Dhaka Art Summit, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

2017

The Other Face Of the Moon, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea

Star Is Mine, 1X1 Art Gallery, Dubai

India Re-worlded: Seventy years of Investigating a Nation, Gallery Odyssey, Mumbai

Wheel the World, Esplanade- Theatres of the Bay, Singapore

Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok

Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs, ParaSite, Hong Kong

Harbingers of Chaos, Galeria Sztuki Współczesnej Bunkier Sztuki. Bunkier Sztuki Gallery of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland

C.V

2016

Mountain Escape, 44 Salon Nacional de Artistas, Pereira, Colombia

Soil And Stones, Souls And Songs at Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, Manila

2015

8th Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art APT8) at Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art(GOMA)

Liberty Taken, Clark House Initiative, Bombay

The Beast and the Sovereign at Württembergischer Kunstverein (WKV) in Stuttgart curated by Iris Dressler, Hans D.

Christ,

Paul B. Preciado and Valentina Roma

14th Instanbul Biennale: Saltwater: a Theory of Thought Forms’ Curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

When Estelle Meets Parker Para Site, Hong Kong & Clark House, at Clark House Initiative, Bombay.

2014

Missing Pavillion at School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU

How to talk about things that don’t exist, at 31st Sao Paulo Bienal Curated by Charles Esche, Galit Eilat, Nuria Enguita

Mayo, Pablo Lafuente and Oren Sagiv with associate curators Benjamin Seroussi and Luiza Proenca, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Panorama of the Nextworld:Breaking out into the Future’ 5th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Artistic director Kuroda Raiji

and other 6 curators at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka city , Japan

‘And I laid traps for troubadours who get killed before they reached Bombay’, Curated by Clark house initiative and

Kadist Art Foundation,Paris, at Clark House Initiative, Bombay.

‘INSERT 2014’,at IGNCA,Mati Ghar, Delhi.

2013

‘Irreverence to your speech’ an exhibition curated by Zasha Colah and Sumesh Sharma, Clark House Initative, Bombay

at Platform 3, Munich, Germany.

‘Un Popolo senza Memoria è Un Popolo senza Futuro’ an exhibition curated by Sumesh Sharma at Museo De Casa

Masaccio, in San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy

‘Black OR White’ curated by Galit Eilat at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherland

prabhakar pachpute - experimenter · prabhakar pachpute (b. 1986, sasti, maharashtra) lives and...

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