Synaptic Odesseys explores and extends our ways of perception and cognition of the Visual Arts. The exhibition does so through a close examination of relationships between objects, materials, archives and the exhibition space itself. It does so through the materially informed practices of Narayan Sinha and Rakesh Patel.
While material engagement and its relation to perception forms the proscenium of the conceptual nodality of this exhibition, it is, however, the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The curatorial inclinations of the show begin from American Philosopher Alva Noë’s, in "Strange Tools: Art and Human Nature," where he argues that "artworks are not passive objects to be observed but active tools that shape our perceptual experiences". The highly sensuous tactility of Narayan and Rakesh’s practice act as catalysts for recollection, and reflection of our own ontological positions. Through the formal tendencies of their practice, Narayan and Rakesh declare emphatically while gingerly disclosing their conceptual intentions. By their very nature of triggering the innate materially embedded disposition of our perception, they become tools to explore and expand our abstract-aesthetic understanding of the world.
The curatorial incursions made at various junctures within the spatial frames of the gallery space in the form of material, textual, photographic archive act as enablers for viewers to engage with the artist’s practice through their tactile possibilities. While these physical incursions become part of the display, programmatic curatorial incursions in the form of workshops, lectures, and happenings become the transient curatorial incursions.
The exhibition at every juncture celebrates, critiques and expands the materiality of artworks, whether through texture, scale, form, space or program and through these the works become a catalyst for embodied experiences that inform the viewer's interpretation and engagement with the art.
