A Place in New York
Navjot Altaf

Wednesday February 9, 2011: 7.00 - 9.00 pm
In conversation with Navjot Altaf and Uzma Rizvi on Saturday February 12th from 6:30 - 7:30 pm

On view till April 15, 2011

The Guild Art Gallery is proud to present Navjot Altaf's research and interactive project ‘A Place in New York’.

‘A Place in New York’ is an outcome of an interactive project Navjot did during an eight week residency in 2008. Done shortly after her project Bombay Shots in Mumbai what intrigued her here too, was people’s interest in a dialogue and the richness of heterodoxy of the city and how coming from diverse cultures and backgrounds they make both Bombay and New York the most vital cities.

“Through these images, we as viewers, come to recognize the agency of each participant to recognize one’s self as the identity invoked. The series taps into issues of claiming and belonging to the city, a process especially vexed for new immigrants in a city of immigrants. The photograph’s documentary claims transforms it into a sort of visual contract between artist and subject that validates each individual’s presence in their chosen space, their claim to that place, marking it with a sense of their belonging. The use digital media and photomontage complicates the specificity of location, however, the interview text and sound installation ground it again. As Ariella Azoulay argues in The Civil Contract of Photography: “Photography, at times, is the only civic refuge at the disposal of those robbed of citizenship.” Though it is not always citizenship in question here (though in some cases it might be), Azoulay’s observation provides insight into how the photograph becomes tool through which individuals locate their identities in place. This process is, unsurprisingly, particularly poignant for the immigrants documented in the project. In number 13, Moshiul Hoque discusses how the events of 9/11 brought these issues to the forefront. Asked by Altaf about what 9/11 meant to him, Hoque reflected: “Like who we are. I am from Bangladesh but I cannot be indifferent to the country I am living in… I have to be responsible and sensitive. Otherwise all those who want to shift from one place to another will be doubted. I think about this. I belong here now… Yes; because I want to continue living here… I am American citizen.” Hoque establishes clear links between identity and place-making, immigration and citizenship, location and belonging.” (Excerpt from an essay Empire State of Mind by Uzma Z. Rizvi, 2011)

Navjot Altaf’s work has been shown in Lacuna in Testimony, Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, Florida, 2009;Curated by Julia Herzberg Public Places Private Spaces, Newark Museum, New York and Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis 2008; Curated by Gayatri Sinha and Paul Stern Berger, Tiger by the Tail: Women Artists Transforming Culture, Brandies University / Museum Boston and New Brunswick Rutgers University, Douglass Library, Newark, 2008; Curated by Wendy Tarlow Kaplan, Elinor W.Gadon and Roobina Karode, Continuity and Transformation, Provinciadi Milano,Italy, 2007;Curated by Daniela Palazzoli, Zones of Contact, 15th Biennale of Sydney Australia, 2006; Curated by Charles Merewether, Australia. Groundworks, Carnegie Mellon University, (RMG) Pittsburgh, 2005;Grant Kester Another Passage To India, Theatre Saint Gervais and Musee d’ Ethnographie, Geneva, Switzerland, 2004; Curated by Pooja Sood, Zoom – Art in Contemporary India, Edificia Sede de Caixo Garal de Depositos, Lisbon, 2004; Curated by Luis Sepra and Nancy Adajania, Century City - Bombay/Mumbai: City Politics and Visual Culture in the 90’s, Tate Modern, London, 2001; Curated by Geeta Kapoor and Ashish Rajadhyaksha, subTerrain:artworks in the cityfold, ,Haus der Kulteren der Welt, Berlin. Curated by Geeta Kapur. 8th Havana Biennale: Art together with life, Cuba, 2003;Curated by Hilda Maria Rodriguez; LimiNAl zoNes, Curated by Pooja Sood, Apeejay Media Gallerry New Delhi,2003; Solo exhibitions include: Touch IV, Video Installation, Talwar Gallery, New Delhi and The Guild, Mumbai 2010; A Place in New York an interactive photo based project, The Guild, Mumbai, 2010; Touch- Remembering Altaf, Video and motor based sculpture Installation, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, 2008; Bombay Shots, an interactive photo based project, The Guild, Mumbai, 2008; Water Weaving, Video Installation, Talwar Gallery, New York, 2005; Junctions 1 2 3, The Guild, Mumbai, 2006 and Jagar Multimedia Installation, Sakshi Gallery Mumbai,2006 among others.

We look forward to seeing you at the opening. For more information please contact us at 1 212 229 2110 or at info@theguildny.com.

Regards,
Renuka Sawhney