All arise in it, All dissolve in it, 2018 19, Spathodea Campanulata seeds, cooked Banana fibre paper mache, 5 ft diameter x 1 ft
In this new exhibition precisely titled Aggregate, Benitha Perciyal collects and gathers several elements belonging to her own world and formal repertoire: objets trouvés sometimes ‘slightly’ assembled in a personal Wunderkammer; two very singular human bust-figures built out of a rough and subtle mix of wood and vegetal essences and powders, looking like they are meditating in the middle of a portable library, made with re-used Burma teak; and a more recent body of work, comprising four very large bowls built out of dry banana leaves or papier-mâché and covered with an extremely sensitive and ethereal surface of translucent, feather-like seeds.
We are far away here, from any Nature / Culture-worn paradigm, ingenuous ecological statement, or wistful discourse on past and tradition, but rather captured in an open and palimpsestic space of memories and materialities. The multilevel and multilayer subtle ‘manipulations’ (in her own words) used by the artist possibly invite us to contemplate and welcome a contemporary ethos.
Catherine David
Mumbai
August 8, 2019