At DCAW, Delhi beyond its postcard image, seen through everyday life

Two young men stand leisurely in the street. One leans against a shuttered shop holding a half-lit cigarette. The other is on his phone. People, like life, pass them by. It is a familiar sight from an urban neighbourhood.

But on a gallery wall at Bikaner House, with Lutyens’ Delhi just outside, the scene makes you look at a side of the Capital that often gets lost in the talk of development. This everyday life of the city, seen in Shoenize Akhtar’s ‘Galli ke Ladke’, is at the centre of this year’s Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW), which features works by six Delhi-based galleries.

This attention to things people usually overlook runs through the exhibition. The works paint a portrait of a city not as a postcard but as a lived ecosystem – through its workers and public spaces, people in transit and the systems that shape their lives.

In Ritika Sharma’s ‘Getting Away’ series, unidentified people are seen doing everyday things – throwing out trash, leaving or arriving with a suitcase, or simply taking a stroll. Sharma's vantage point mimics that of a CCTV camera, seemingly alluding to the increasing surveillance – a practice becoming commonplace in cities.

"Sharma focuses on how routine gestures, spaces and signs reflect systems of control, care and resistance. The shifting position of the figure, from being seen and seeing, approaching and leaving, creates a sense of unpredictability about what has happened before and what might happen next," said Vadehra Art Gallery, which brought her work to DCAW, in a statement.

B Pradhan’s sculptural installation ‘Theatre of Labour’ focuses on the workforce – the backbone of the city – overlooked and unacknowledged, though indispensable. Shreeya Dwivedi's ‘Under the Sink’ moves the lens from the macro view of the city into its intimate domestic spaces, inhabiting which, especially alone, come with its own challenges.

Although invisible, these spaces add depth to a city's character. In the work, Dwivedi paints herself cleaning a sink pipe. "Cleaning is a simple chore but it can feel overwhelming at times as I live alone. One day I was cleaning the pipe and smelled like it the whole day.

I tried to show a connection between the bend of the pipe and my backbone, showing that both are carrying the pressure alone," she said. A city is shaped by its people, just as people are shaped by the city they live in – Astha Butail explores this idea in her ‘Self Series’, which comprises seven hexagonal mirrors placed in a horizontal line across the corner of a room.

The mirrors create several reflections of the viewer, much like the different identities people take on as they move through city life. At times, these personalities may even overlap or clash. The city within the corridors of Bikaner House may not necessarily be Delhi.

But the works capture the city’s dreams and struggles, its toil and aspirations, looking beyond the familiar images of monuments and master plans, showcasing its streets and people that make up Delhi. Trisha Mukherjee is an Associate Editor at The Indian Express.

As a feature journalist with over 12 years of experience in diverse newsrooms -- Press Trust of India, Outlook magazine and The New Indian Express -- she has written on cultural, social and political issues, with a particular focus on art.

She has covered several national and international art events, including multiple editions of Art Basel Hong Kong, the Venice Biennale, Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival and the India Art Fair, among others.

She attempts to look at contemporary issues ranging from farmers’ protest and women’s rights to climate change and global politics, through the cultural lens. She is an alumna of Calcutta University and Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal.

Additionally, she also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Indian Aesthetics from Jnanapravaha, Mumbai. At The Indian Express, her art writing strives to capture the dynamic art industry -- both Indian and global -- with a focus on its new voices, changing institutional models and evolving markets, while continuing coverage of colonial and modern Indian art.

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