LET ME TELL YOU A STORY… PART II, CURATED BY LUIZA TEIXEIRA DE FREITAS

July 01 - July 31 , 2023

“We are the opening verse of the opening page of the chapter of endless possibilities.”
- Rudyard Kipling

As we turn the page to the second part of this exhibition at Akara Contemporary, a sense of curiosity, surprise and most of all as Kipling says, a number of ‘endless possibilities’ lie ahead of us. Yet, much like the first part, the intrinsic nature of storytelling prevails through the dialogue of art practices and artworks that interlace within themselves.
The space now holds within it the nuances of part one and the stories it has woven together. Part two of the exhibition will not only connect within itself but also to the works that were housed here before, to the memory of what was.
As said in the first part of the show, it is the weaving of such stories that enables history to be made and told. Inspired by the writer and poet Rudyard Kipling, who born in Mumbai to a British India, was deeply influenced by its culture and people, is the simple, yet deep context and concept for this two-part exhibition.
Bearing artists from different nationalities and backgrounds, Let Me Tell You A Story – Part II, in its whole, draws references to the simplest of all opposites – night and day. Duly, this exhibition bears witness to the later, works that allude to new beginnings, light, movement, awakening and the passage of time.
While Buhlebezwe Siwani addresses forms of spiritual knowledge in relation to place and land, Utkarsh Makwana questions the everyday realities he comes across, employing geometric patterns as a tool for storytelling. Sathi Guin’s detailed compositions of linear abstract forms find their rhythm alongside Darren Almond’s grids, which draw attention to the way time can structure, assemble, and apprise our understanding of the world. Each of these works create a striking dialogue with Mexican artist Rodrigo Hernandez’s utopian universes - the only artist to be in both exhibitions.
The foremost intention behind these exhibitions was to use the interplay between art and storytelling to contextualize international contemporary art to a larger audience while engaging with local stories and practices. It is with the same avid curiosity that comes upon us when we are eager to turn the page to keep reading a story, that Akara starts this new chapter in its own hi(story).


Curated by
Luiza Teixeira De Freitas

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Installation