Losing artfully

Urmi Chanda

The term, Nail House, comes from a Chinese pun that refers to nails that stick stubbornly out from a piece of wood and cannot be hammered down (or presumably pulled out). In real estate parlance, it is more popularly known as a ‘holdout’, referring to owners of a piece of land who refuse to sell to developers, despite everything around their plot being sold and ready for redevelopment. The ‘holdouters’ often occur as caricatures and nut jobs in the narrative of the land shark. They must be lured, coaxed and even threatened to part with their property. The other side of the story is rarely told. Who are the people who hold out? Why do they hold out? Do they enjoy digging their heels and sticking out unfavourably when the world around them seems to have moved on?

Articulation of loss

Artist Anjana Mehra tries to answer these questions in a personal capacity and in the process, poses some more questions in her latest exhibition The Nail House. On at the Nine Fish Art Gallery in Mumbai, this is an exhibition in three parts, showcasing Mehra’s paintings, photographs and a video installation, each speaking a language of loss.

Curator Gourmoni Das has conceived the show in three parts, namely Belongingness or Nomadism, Restaging and Restating Loss, and Losing One’s Body Parts. Showing simultaneously, these sections explore different ways of relating to and cutting off from the world. Das says, “In Belongingness or Nomadism, the artist’s paintings address and problematise an urban framework — the transforming topography of a city, its skyline, its ever shrinking and compressed spaces. Through Restaging and Restating Loss, she calls for the accountability of those in administrative power, and in control of the frenetic tower, or road or bridge building exercises of Mumbai’s superstructure. And finally, in Losing One’s Body Parts, the video installation of the process of tearing apart of nail houses mimics the unbecoming of a living being, that seems to throb in agony.”

Holding out

Mehra’s inspiration comes from a very personal experience, which brought her face to face with the truth of displacement. She says, “In 2005, my building was being illegally demolished by a builder. All residents had abandoned the premises overnight! Just my son and me were left, since my husband was working in Pune then, and came home only over the weekends. My son and I continued to live through the demolition. There was dust and debris everywhere, as were the gundas who were sent to intimidate us. I lived to tell the tale, having documented my experiences. I filmed it all, took stills and transformed my fear, anger, and helplessness by being creative!”

Mehra is originally a painter, but has worked with three mediums for this show — her first major solo. Das took over a year to collate and curate her work and finally arrived at a rather unusual theme. He says, “From our very first meeting, Anjana shared with us her desire to express through this exhibition her need to deal with her experience — one of demolition and the attempts of coping and dealing with the same. It is, therefore, a deeply experienced show. What encouraged us at the gallery was her courage to delve into these horrible experiences and to conflate her life with her art — to become at once the subject and the object of the exhibition.”

The circumstances of eviction, of the demolition of concrete symbols of one’s identity are examined in Mehra’s work. By putting oneself in her shoes, one experiences what it must mean for our worlds to literally come crashing down – many a time without consent, or hope for reparation. Standing in the gallery, looking at images and videos of demolition, one’s privilege and the fragility of life and its perceived secureness are immediately called to question.

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