I was part of the group show ‘All Together Now’ which took place in July 2024 in New Delhi at the India International Centre, Kamaladevi Gallery.
In Winter 2023 I visited my aunt who lives on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. It felt like she was always weeding her garden. I tried to help but I was no match for the weeds, which were tough as nails, and I would retreat in defeat with aching hands. But my aunt could yank them out in a state of dance like flow, as if she knew each one individually, their exact points of weakness. I asked her this summer why she enjoyed weeding so much. Her answer was a revelation to me. I was struck by the sense of triumph that a small act of weeding could generate. She had found a perfect way to create a positive shift in her emotions each time she succeeded in pulling out a weed, while also keeping her garden tidy. I wonder if we all have our personal weeding practices. And I also wonder about our inner weeds. What kind of inner weeds do we carry? Do they stay in neglected dark corners completely unacknowledged? Or do we shine such bright lights on them that we stop seeing anything else about ourselves, yearning to yank them out, as if they were disrupting the landscape of ourselves.
Below is a selection of images from the show.
Shoili Kanungo 