Solo exhibition Swapnaa Tamhane: No Surface is Neutral opens at Surrey Art Gallery, September 23

Artist uses embellished textiles and handmade cotton-cloth paper to consider India’s colonial history

SPONSORED POST BY Surrey Art Gallery

Swapnaa Tamhane with Salemamad Khatri and Mukesh, Pragnesh, and Avdhesh Prajapati and Bhavesh Rajnikant, with assistance from Sine Kundargi-Girard, Mobile Palace (detail of installation view), 2019-2021, natural dyes and applique on cotton. Photo by Paul Eekhoff (Royal Ontario Museum)

Swapnaa Tamhane, Untitled (Phulkari), 2017, water-soluble graphite on handmade khadi paper mounted on cotton. Photo by Paul Eekhoff (Royal Ontario Museum)

Surrey Art Gallery announces the opening of solo exhibition Swapnaa Tamhane: No Surface is Neutral on September 23.

A fall opening and artist talk takes place from 6:30 pm to 9 pm, featuring a conversation between artist Swapnaa Tamhane, gallery curator Jordan Strom, and associate curator of adult programs Sameena Siddiqui. An additional tour and talk with the exhibition’s curator Deepali Dewan and associate UBC professor T’ai Smith will be held on October 12 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Tamhane’s work considers the role of cotton in India’s colonial and decolonial histories through large-scale textile installations. The Montreal-based artist, curator, and writer challenges the hierarchical colonial separation between art, craft, and design in India.

Her artwork includes block-printed and embellished textiles, and works on paper handmade from cotton cloth. The pieces harness different moments in India’s history of industrial and handloom cotton production, bringing them together in a contemporary way to challenge how we understand ideas of ornamentation and decoration. Tamhane treats textiles as though they are drawings, layering ideas of mark-making and the presence of the hand to explore what it means to make a decolonial gesture.

The exhibition features two bodies of work displayed side by side. The first includes textile works made in collaboration with artists in western India from the Kutch region. They are arranged in sweeping architectural forms that reference the Mughal and Ottoman shamiana (imperial tent) layered with motifs from Le Corbusier’s architecture in Ahmedabad, India, as well as the shimmering mirrored walls of mud homes.

The second body of work includes drawings on paper handmade by Tamhane from khadi (handspun cotton cloth) that has been deconstructed to its base fibres and reconstituted. In these works, drawing can take any form of mark-making—from pencil or ink on paper, to folding, crumpling, and mixing paper pulps even before the paper has dried.

The opening reception on September 23 celebrates two additional exhibitions: all roses sleep (inviolate light), and Kampala to Canada.

Swapnaa Tamhane: No Surface is Neutral is on display until November 26. Admission is free, and more information can be found here.

Post sponsored by Surrey Art Gallery.