Seema Kohli
Between Realms and Dreams, Along Reality’s Edge, a solo exhibition of acclaimed multi- disciplinary artist, poet, and dreamer Seema Kohli (b. 1960), brings together key bodies of work in diverse media, encompassing works on paper, paintings, sculptures, installation, moving-image, etchings, textiles, photography, serigraphs and manifestations as prints that form Kohli’s rigorous practice.
Swaying between the vivid, emotional, and surreal flights of, and in-between alternate universes, the exhibition, Between Realms and Dreams, Along Reality’s Edge, showcases a will to break free from self-contained planes of existence, concurrent with one’s own. Some of the oldest cultures and accounted pieces of literature have revealed parallel worlds that transpose conquests, where protagonists seek, explore or conquer. On one hand there is the Persian text of ‘One Thousand and One Nights’, a tale narrated by Yamlikha, the serpent queen, to Hasib Karim al-Din after he enters her realm.
A disquisition of search, discovery and feat as it speaks of proponent, Buluqiya, who leaves for a voyage to sift through seven islands, before he returns home to be king. On the other hand, the western, Norse mythology contests ‘ordinary’ land to the land of ‘Alfheim’, an otherworldly home to elves, fairies and other folkloric creatures. There is also the Japanese concept of ‘Isekai’, of which the earliest traces can be found in the tales of ‘Urashima Tarō’. With a bi-focal tradition, the stories may be divided into the protagonist either “transitioning into another world” or “reincarnating into another world”. Several other records may be found, with claims of being fact or fiction — where there is a walk through a mirror to a strange new world, crossing oceans to reach unknown waters as well as myths and legends that express infinite universes, each with its own gods. Till date, the most notable physicists and researchers debate its faculty. The idea, first put forward by Max Plank in the 1900s, resulted in the possibilities of deeper laws at work. A doctoral candidate at Princeton University, Hugh Everett, sought an evolutionary system to show there may be parallel worlds that exist with our own, comparing the scenario to branches of a tree. The works as part of the exhibit, Between Realms and Dreams, Along Reality’s Edge, are unconcerned about the matter of fact. The artist rather, poetically clutches and caresses free rein, taking autonomy to gracefully unfurl shackles.
As one goes through the exhibition, narratives around the golden womb, which is the self- pervading source from which the entire cosmos emerges, are unveiled. There is a birthing that takes place. Birthing, which is not just of physicality but also of cerebral intuition and that of spirit. To consider a serigraph as part of the exhibition, titled Almost Everything Notes on Hope (2021), one can see the expansion of cognizance through knowledge. Inception hints at inquiry. One sees visual dialects of seeking, as they question identity, faith, norms, duties, teachings, to pivot, rivet, compare, morph to alter then assess and gauge a material existence. For instance, in the
presented in a set of 84 prints Ouroboros (2013), the artist uses physiognomy to portray an introspection, to pierce through an assigned self. The artist shape shifts from one form to another, moving in and out of skins, bones and attires. Identity and anatomy, at instances, also manifest themselves as a world of its own. The next stage is that of discovery, which is an equivalent of sprouting, blooming, flourishing. There is a gradual, timely anthesis of the self. An example is the acrylic and ink on canvas work with 24-carat gold and silver leaf, titled, Hiranyagarbha – Time, Space, Movement (2023). And finally, there is a flight. An act of emancipation, which can be seen through multiple works including, Altered reality (2023), Narratives & Songs of Hiranyagarbha of Riding of Winds (2023) and Flight Within (2023). This is a flight of liberation, where whims are set free. There are fractures that blur confines between realms, dreams and reality.
BronzeL36 x W32 x H432018
Drawings On Archival Prints And Archival Ink And Gold Dust24 x 70 inches2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf4 x 6 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6.7 x 5 ft2023
Concept & Direction: Seema KohliCinematography Edit & Sound: Sakthi Doss A 12 minute capturing Seema Kohli’s involvement and the whole process of the making of the artworks at...
Grid of 84 archival prints of self-portraits, of 10x10inch. The cycle of life revolves around birth, death and the eventual liberation from mortality. All forms of life follow...
Single Channel Installation Performance & Concept: Seema KohliCinematography: Marlène Ila Popovic, Sakthi BhagatEditing: Marlene Ila PopovicSound Design: Sahil Vasudeva “We see death as a full stop. But it...
Concept, Script & Direction: Seema Kohli Photography & Videography: Sakthi Bhagat Editor: Tariq Vasudeva Music: Sahil Vasudeva Animation: Gaurav Singh Bedi “Seema Kohli’s Enter Stillness is a fable...
Pacific Art League, Palo Alto, California
Gallerie Nvya, Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi
Shridharani Gallery at Triveni Kala Sangam, presented by Gallerie Nvya, Delhi
National Gallery of Modern Art, Bengaluru
Seema Kohli Studio, New Delhi and The Partition Museum, Delhi
Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai
Bihar Museum, Patna
Bikaner House, New Delhi presented by Gallerie Nvya
Venue: Sunder Nursery, New Delhi, Presented by Gallery Ragini
Kolkata Centre for Creativity, Kolkata
Tao Art Gallery
Acrylic Color, Water Colors, Ink On Treated Archival Canvas And Acrylics Sheet With LED Lights54 x 61 inches2017
Acrylic, Water-Color And Ink On Treated Archival Canvas And Acrylics Sheet2017
Drawings And Calligraphy Reproduced From Ancestral Books, Ink And Pencil On Archival Paper2019
Drawings And Calligraphy Reproduced From Ancestral Books, Ink And Pencil On Archival Paper2019
Drawings And Calligraphy Reproduced From Ancestral Books, Ink And Pencil On Archival Paper2019
Wooden SculptureH 10.5ft x L 9.5ft x W 4.7ft2019
Tea Stains, Gouache And Inks On Paper13 x 4 ft2014
Tea Stains, Gouache And Inks On Paper13 x 4 ft2014
Glass- Reinforced Polymer16 x 14 x 11 inches2018
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Intaglio Zinc Plate Etchings On Fabriano Paper5 x 5 inch diameter2014
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf60 x 66 inches2018
Sandstone Sculpture5 x 11 x 24 inches2019
Sandstone Sculpture5 x 11 x 24 inches2019
Sandstone Sculpture5 x 11 x 24 inches2019
Sandstone Sculpture5 x 12 x 24 inches2019
Bronze45 x 25 x 17 inches2019
Thread, Beads And Sequence On Canvas Cloth62 x 69 inches2023
Thread, Beads And Sequence On Canvas Cloth56.75 x 55 inches2023
Thread, Beads And Sequence On Canvas Cloth54.75 x 46.5 inches2023
Thread, Beads And Sequence On Canvas Cloth47.75 x 74 inches2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf5 x 7 ft2023
Gambhari Wood, Steel And Brass FittingsW65 x L84 inches2023
Stainless Steel 6mm, Weight 180kg8 x 5 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6 x 6 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6 x 6 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf3 x 3 ft2023
Acrylic And Water Colors On Arches, 300gsm, Cold Press Paper10.2 x 14 inches2024
Acrylic And Water Colors On Arches, 300gsm, Cold Press Paper10.2 x 14 inches2024
Acrylic, Watercolours And Inks On 360gsm Paper4 x 5 ft2024
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6 x 6 ft2024
Bronze4 x 4 x 1.5 ft2019
Pen, Ink, Water And Gouache Colors On Paper (Stuck On Aluminium sheet)45 x 96 inches2020
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6 x 4 ft2020
5.5 x 9 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf4 x 6 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf3 x 4 ft2025
Woodcut Print On Paper121.92 x 152.4 cm2025
Woodcut On Schoelershammer 165 GSM3 x 3 ft2026
Etching On Arches Paper48 x 120 inches2014
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf8 x 6 ft2025
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With Pure Silver Leaf4 x 10 inches2026
BronzeL36 x W32 x H432018
Drawings On Archival Prints And Archival Ink And Gold Dust24 x 70 inches2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf4 x 6 ft2023
Acrylic Colors And Ink On Canvas With 24kt Gold And Silver Leaf6.7 x 5 ft2023
Khula Aasman
Khula Aasman
Khula Aasman
Khula Aasman
The Golden Womb Series
Khula Aasman
Khula Aasman
Khula Aasman
Tree of life
Khula Aasman
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