Nancy Adajania will discuss the curatorial methodology underpinning her research-based exhibition, ‘One Hundred Years and Counting: Re-scripting K G Subramanyan’ (Emami Art | Seagull, 2024). Her presentation of the legacy of Subramanyan, a seminal artist, pedagogue, crafts activist and institution builder, marks a distinct shift of focus. By designing a theatre of provocations, she has critically annotated certain political and aesthetic aspects of the artist’s practice through arguments, debates and stories. Through a series of what Adajania calls ‘unpredictable adjacencies’, she has placed Subramanyan’s toys next to Abanindranath Tagore’s all-but-forgotten miniature sculptures, kutum katam, and shown rare archival footage of a shadowgraphy performance of Prasanna Raghava Rao next to the silhouettes of KGS’ children’s books.

Among other things, ‘One Hundred Years and Counting’ has also created the space for an encounter between the liminal bohurupi from Ritwik Ghatak’s ‘Subarnarekha’ and the polymorphs that dominated KGS’ imagination, while also gesturing towards Subramanyan’s ambivalent take on female sexuality and agency by introducing into the exhibition works by women artists N Pushpamala and Mrinalini Mukherjee, who were nourished by his practice.

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