If He Hollars Let Him Go, 2005 acrylic and bookpages from Cassell's Illustrated History of India c. 1875 on panel, 29 x 40 inches Rajkamal Kahlon Unbound P·P·O·W is pleased to present "Unbound" an exhibition by emerging artist Rajkamal Kahlon. Kahlon's new series of paintings respond to a nineteenth century tome entitled "Cassell's Illustrated History of India". After finding this book in 2003 on auction at Sotheby's, Kahlon borrowed $400 to acquire it with the intention of unbinding and using all 1200 dislocated pages as her conceptual starting point. In both her paintings and gouaches, Kahlon responds to the actual book pages, often painting over texts and manipulating the illustrations set in front of her. In doing this, she creates a charged, fragmented narrative about her relationship to India's history and its colonial past. Kahlon's paintings tell a new story of brutality, power, and the possibilities of survival. Kahlon's, paintings draw on diverse historical and cultural sources, such as 19th century illustrated books, painted backdrops, cut outs, and ethnographic photography. Kahlon is interested in collapsing the authority and privilege of cultural objects and fashioning their remnant parts into a new narrative. Saccharin color schemes clash with violent imagery heightening the feeling of dislocation. Functions of the body: feeding, lactation, urination, and defecation, become metaphors for the processes of production and consumption and their link to the history of colonization and present globalization. The work makes visible the psychic trauma of colonialization on the individual body while highlighting relationships of power that mirror the contemporary moment. Rajkamal Kahlon was born and raised in Northern California. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from the University of California, Davis in 1996, and an M.F.A. in Painting from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1999. She received a Summer Fellowship from the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (1998), was a Fellow in the Whitney Independent Study Program (2001). She is currently a Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown, Massachusetts. Kahlon was selected as the 2003 Workspace Artist, an Artist-in-Residence program at the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, New York (2003), which culminated in a solo exhibition. Her work was included in "AIM 22", Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (2002), and both "637 Running Feet: Black on White Wall Drawing" (2003), and "Edge of Desire: Recent Art In India" at Queens Museum of Art, New York (2005). Exhibition: April 22 - May 21, 2005 Gallery hours: Tue-Sat 11 am - 5 pm and by appointment P·P·O·W 555 W 25th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues) USA-New York, NY 10001 Telephone +1 212 647-1044 Fax +1 212 647-1043 Email info@ppowgallery.com www.ppowgallery.com |
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