Overview

Time is a Thought … is it a creation of Human Consciousness

Time ceases to exist in the Absolute where past, present and future coexist simultaneously.

Our obsession with mapping and measuring time has led to seminal research on cosmology, astrology and art.  So, for this exhibition, I have invited artists to lend their interpretation of time, explore historical, geological and cosmic time, investigate past traditions and beliefs, as well as old and new visual representations of the calendar as a measure of the passage of time. The exhibition examines, along with the passage of time, the aestheticization of time and the re- aestheticization of the image in contemporary arts as well as the influence of the folk and the local.

Their readings are culled from their own personal archive of memories, milestones in their life, or even an interpretation of the traditional almanacs like the Buddhist and Jain calendars or the Book of Hours that mark the twelve months that make up a year, divided into periods by seasons, festivals, prayers and auspicious days. The art reflects the multiplicity of our faiths as well as the passage of time, the aestheticization of the image in contemporary art and the influence of the folk and the local. They are of a commemorative nature – conveying abstractions that are divine, personal or historic.

Thus, the artists establish their consciousness in a sacred area free from the influence of Time, though they are acting in the present and reinforce the idea of using thoughtlessness or being in the present to go beyond the realm of time.

Time is an infinitely secretive and intimate unit of measurement, it is known to be relative, to dissolve, to flow and yet we as a civilization have been preoccupied with the precise measurement of time, down to the nanosecond. Before the advent of the clock and the calendar, ancient civilizations measured time with a sundial and the plotting of stars.  

The artists have been invited to lend their interpretation of the almanac and explore historical time, geological time and cosmic time, and investigate past traditions and beliefs among other viewpoints, examining old and new visual representations of the calendar, as a measurement of the passage of time. 

While the lithographic reproduction of gods and goddesses have become the insignia of one’s caste, status and religious beliefs, artists now pose questions and queries about the function of the calendar in our daily lives, where the chaos of time and the universe is neatly divided into the days of the week and the months in a year or a more complex layering of multiple faiths.