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Tinsquo’s curatorial project, Adjacent To Life, presents Reliquaries for Demon Auntie: Paintings by Isabella Kapur.
"Pieces of the body taken from a saint after death and enclosed in gilded sculptures, reliquaries divide and distribute parts of the deified body to far-flung worshippers seeking blessing, or solace. It’s a morbid process, one where belief and hope transform remains into fragments of power. Reliquaries for Demon Auntie adopts and toys with this precious language of gold, stone, fabric, and jewels as they modify, preserve, and create ancestral, and by extension living, bodies. Borrowing faces from vintage Bollywood, in particular the face of “Tragedy Queen” Meena Kumari; as well as the artist’s own hands; fragments of mythology from Scandinavia, South Asia, and The British Isles; familial anecdotes; North Indian weapons and jewelry; Nordic textiles; and a dash of popular culture, the works in this show serve as sections of one many headed, many limbed body. Gilded but torn apart, Demon Auntie, or Demon Mausi, is a personal anti-saint and an undead family member to look up to – some assembly required."
Reliquaries for Demon Auntie is on view through February 11 at the Adjacent to Life gallery housed in Ninth Street Espresso (341 E. 10th Street at Ave B, New York City).
Posted by Mark Roth at January 8, 2022 01:48 AM