The Third Hand

Curated by Bhasha Mewar in collaboration with Priyasri Art Gallery, The Third Hand exhibition presents works by various artists, where most are graduates from M.S. University Baroda, except Sampurna who is from Shanti Niketan and Jagganath. The show attempts to speculate, re-orient, and fracture some of the emotive, cerebral and material facets of art-making within this particular context towards linearity in the 'art/non art' dichotomy through collaboration. Collaboration is a way of understanding the third hand, a presence easily ignored in the more or less isolatory rhetoric of art as an entity.

The Third Hand takes on many forms, the literal addition of a collaborative partner, nuances of historical, socio-economical influences that become part of the work of art or an exchange of ideas, skills, techniques between artists. The artists of this show reach out of their own space and directly address histories that make them who they are, unsettling understandings of and expectations about the way their art functions and means in culture and within their own personal narrative.

Some ways in which artists of this exhibition have collaborated are: Deepti’s practice combines zoology and life cycles which help her initiate dialogues about birth and death. Whereas, Debajyoti’s work includes documentation in photographs of people all over the country and collaboration with professionals from other fields on whom he relies for these narratives and photographs. Or Sampurna’s collaboration with workers of a crematorium in Baroda with an intention of understanding the impermanency of life and the mechanical exercise of cremation. She uses materials like charcoal and ash to create works that reflect this collaboration.

Through these varied practices, The Third Hand unfolds as an inquiry into shared authorship and the generative potential of working with rather than alone.