Kaee Contemporary presents, ‘When the other stares back – curated by Adwait Singh’

Kaee Contemporary presents, ‘When the other stares back – curated by Adwait Singh’

Kolkata: ‘Kaee’ — an idiomatic word for algae — denotes an enlivening presence within an ecology. Not only does it fulfill a nourishing and filtering function, but its metabolisms and composition can also be further studied to determine the health of the ecosystem. Founded by Ambica Beri in 2022, Kaee Contemporary lodges itself within a perceived need for a dedicated contemporary art space that curates emerging and experimental practices and places them in an intergenerational dialogue with established practitioners. With a range of energizing residencies between Kolkata and Maihar illuminating its core , the programming at Kaee catalyzes an interplay of urban and rural perspectives.  In doing so, Kaee hopes to bring two distinct social ecologies into a fruitful field of pollination. Its homely settings in Alipore complete with a café and relaxed outdoor spaces counters the alienating white-cube aesthetic with a sense of coziness, hospitality, and commensality. These unconventional settings are set to play host to a variety of formats — exhibitory, pedagogical, interactive — that foreground ingenuity, innovation, and interdisciplinary. Kaee Contemporary brings to you it’s exclusive exhibition, ‘‘When the other stares back’ – curated by Adwait Singh on 26th March, 2022 at our very own City of Joy.

The exhibition brings together the works of four female artists who hail from Kolkata. Their composite and layered works essay an inter-generational conversation about synthesized contaminants that impel us, governing our lifestyles. Each artist stages an encounter with non-human actants — plankton, animals, plants — that are caught up in a helpless becoming at the hand of man. Ranging from melancholic to monstrous, these become an update us against landscapes to come, transformed beyond recognition and grown allergic to our existence as a species. Speculative or documentary, the works are rooted within urban environments that the artists came to inhabit, exposing these seemingly civilized spaces as nested sites of multi-species cohabitation and conflict. Seduced into the inhospitable territory, the viewer is fixed and surveyed by a gaze that is utterly alien. It is a gaze that is as impenetrable as it is unforgiving; a gaze that asks for accountability and pronounces judgment. The artists of this renowned exhibition are Jayashree Chakravarty, Radhika Agarwala, Sonia Mehra Chawla and Suhasini Kejriwal.

Ambica Beri, Founder, Kaee Contemporary, says, “With Kaee Contemporary, we come full circle to where we began, to what may seem a complete reversal of the original form. However, much like the nature of the evolving ‘kaee’ which supports life on the planet, the new art space will generate an environment for art to evolve and continue to grow in synthesis.”