No Parsi is an Island

IMAGES COURTESY NGMA, NEW DELHI
01 May, 2016

20 MARCH TO 29 MAY

NATIONAL GALLERY OF MODERN ART, DELHI

“No Parsi is an Island” celebrates Parsi history and culture through works by painters, sculptors and illustrators of Parsi origin, produced from the late colonial period to the present. Despite the shared roots of its contributors, the exhibition does not relate directly to the Parsi community or their concerns, but instead explores themes such as nationalism, globalisation, colonialism and modernity. The exhibit is curated with an eye for imagination and variety, incorporating works that include introspective, haunting paintings by Sudhir Patwardhan and Atul Dodiya; illustrations of regional dancers by Shiavax Chavda; and bold sculptures by Piloo Pochkhanawala. Across a sunlit courtyard, viewers  can find a complementary exhibition called “Painted Encounters: Parsi Traders and The Community,” which uses art to document the lives of Parsis between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, illuminating with particular vividness the experiences of those who sailed, as merchants, to China and other distant ports.

IMAGES COURTESY NGMA, NEW DELHI
IMAGES COURTESY NGMA, NEW DELHI
IMAGES COURTESY NGMA, NEW DELHI

- Charlie Mitchell