Gestalt, a Victor Hazra solo exhibition
Curatorial Advisor, Lina Vincent
Date: 8th Aug - 31st Jul., 2024
Envision our planet as a globoid sculpture of vast proportions, its surface in constant flux, shaped over time by natural phenomenon and deliberate intervention. Picture the constant intrusions and extrusions that scar the earth, and the irreversible manipulation of land and water-bodies as human survival impacts all else. Viewed through satellite imagery, all that can be seen are marks, lines, dots and shapes, criss-crossing the geography and presenting traces of civilisational existence.
Victor Hazra’s work draws from these global realities, as well as his immediate surroundings, as he explores the transition of natural or artificial matter, in a continual cycle of becoming and breaking down. He seeks to tell stories of transformation and progression, articulating the intersections of organic and mechanical, constructed and grown, in dynamic and/or static states. Central to his current preoccupations is the presence of the anthropomorphic (or perhaps bionic) form within the landscape, moving through dimensions and apparently conquering time and space.
Building on the artist’s expansive visual vocabulary of three dimensional and linear architectonic structures, the body of work in Gestalt focuses on the integration of geometric shapes and abstract topographies. The circle and square, the triangle and rectangular forms reside in juxtaposition to and within each other; the pieces overlap and unite to form varied interchangeable wholes. Hazra communicates his response to the palimpsest landscape, in which layer upon layer of material permeates the other, creating morphic diagrams that represent transformations of diverse sorts. As an observer and chronicler, he externalises the vastness of collective human experience through artistic commentary and imaginary visualisations. Constructions and consumption of land are part of a cycle of necessity on the human front, yet there is a necessity to consciously dissolve the socio-cultural conflict between (hu)man and the environment.
Beyond the obvious references to the built and natural world, Hazra’s work also brings to mind additional narratives that lie under the surface: the invisible labour that is constantly involved in this shifting construction; the control of the ‘capitalocene’ and the dominance of corporations that make decisions about land and resources; migration, dichotomies of rural and urban, and the accompanying hierarchies and inequalities; patriarchy and nation building, and the politics of power.
Within his muted paintings and earthy forms and structures, Victor Hazra acknowledges space for beauty and balance, an ecology of creation that navigates complex physical and conceptual configurations in order to express his truth.
Text by Lina Vincent
