Imaging the Invisible

Malashri Lal


Philosophically speaking, every poet or artist, sculptor or graphic designer is attempting to interpret the silences ‘In Between the Lines’. The innovative exhibition curated by Meena Chopra presents this paradox of articulating the imagination while accepting its provisionality. By tracking 23 women poets from across the world and counterpointing their work with the art of Mississauga-based late Miro Korsic, she has built a dialogue across nations, cultures and aesthetic expressions. In the poems appear the diverse ways in which contemporary struggles and attempted resolutions become transformed by the filter of the artistic eye. There is violence as well as peace, grief as well as ecstasy, homelessness and new habitations, affections along with enmities—none of these are oppositional but merge strangely with one another in a myriad play of words and images.

Digital platforms are said to be ephemeral, too changeable, too plentiful. Interestingly, the exhibition’s choice of this mode gives it a permanency that is impossible for physically mounted artifacts or poetry boards. To have the leisure and power to maneuver through the exhibits, zoom into poems one wishes to read closely or inspect the artworks with a closer view is a refinement of aesthetic opportunities. The vision document states the intent to be global and also resonate with the stamp of a particular voice or image. A fascinating blend of artistry, technology and design devoted to “metaverse”—or poetry beyond conceivable boundaries—this exhibition charts a new path in display methodologies. Its philosophy of foregrounding the mystical interstices in creation and the infinite capacity of the humane and artistic imagination to enter and expand those spaces is both admirable and laudatory.

Links to the gallery:

Malashri Lal, Professor in the English Department (retd), University of Delhi, has sixteen books to her credit including In Search of Sita (2009,2018), Tagore and the Feminine: (2015), Finding Radha (2019). Her specialization is in literature, women and gender studies. Her poems and stories have been published in Indian Literature, Confluence, The Beacon, online portals and anthologies. She was a Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Culture, and has served on international book award juries. Lal is a frequent speaker at literary festivals and is currently Member, English Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi (Govt of India). 

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