BackAt first glance, Ankush Safaya’s works breathe stillness. But as the eye trains itself on the picture plane these flat surfaces become activated linear whispers that assume kinetic energies and suggest poetic missives of human experience. His training as an engineer exposed technology to him in a way that made him engage with an abstract world, wherein circuit boards translated into Mondrian’s paintings, and jumbled wires became reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock painted surface. His practice is akin to echoes of hymns that would arise from an amplification of basic musical notes that in turn, create binaries of complexity in varied microscopic degrees in time. He seeks to open up these nuanced spaces of discourse to the viewer, through a personal interplay of individual experiences that decode each work.
Safaya in his recent works extract’s texts from books he is reading which detail the histories of conflict and turmoil. These texts are then inscribed by the artist in Morse code in varied ways - sometimes on paper with graphite pencils, or mechanisms of burning the paper using laser which is fed by instructions via these codes, or creating perforations on layered sheets of gateway paper, and then the further layering of translucent papers on this to create a palimpsest that suggests the altered. These re-inscribed texts of political events and history are not meant to be read. Instead these multiple layers of coded text are to become varied layers of human memory on each surface – like a landscape of floating rhythms, that draw you to explore the imprint of your own belonging within them.
The triggers to his visual articulations include musical pieces of composers like Arvo Part and John Cage, the visuals of filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky and Akira Kurosawa, along with the metaphysical oeuvre of artist Nasreen Mohammedi. Each becomes a mental sounding board, with the unique potential to create infinite echoes that have inexplicable transmutations.
Born in 1985 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Safaya completed his studies in Engineering in 2007. He had his debut solo, Anantata – Hymns of Graphical Notation at Sakshi Gallery in 2019, followed by MEMORY TRACE / DAPAAN (…it is said) at Latitude 28 gallery, New Delhi, in collaboration with Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 2023. He was previously part of group exhibitions such as Ufuq – Zarina a Tribute at Bajaj Kamalnayan Gallery, Mumbai, curated by Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala; Four Conversations in the Room at Sakshi Salon, Mumbai, curated by Rekha Rodwittiya; The Sacred and the Profane at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, curated by Geetha Mehra; and Five for the Future at Nature Morte, Gurgaon in 2013. He was awarded the Glenfiddich Emerging Artist of the Year 2013 (runner-up). He has presented at the TIE Conference 2019 at Santa Clara, California, on the invitation of the Motwani Jadeja Foundation, and also gave a master class to the fellows of the Rajeev Circle Program. He was invited as the first Artist-in-Residence by the Motwani Jadeja Foundation in New York in August 2019 and at ARE Holland as a resident artist in Eschede, Netherlands in April/May 2024.
Safaya currently resides and works at The Collective Studio Baroda, hosted by Rekha Rodwittiya & Surendran Nair.
Safaya in his recent works extract’s texts from books he is reading which detail the histories of conflict and turmoil. These texts are then inscribed by the artist in Morse code in varied ways - sometimes on paper with graphite pencils, or mechanisms of burning the paper using laser which is fed by instructions via these codes, or creating perforations on layered sheets of gateway paper, and then the further layering of translucent papers on this to create a palimpsest that suggests the altered. These re-inscribed texts of political events and history are not meant to be read. Instead these multiple layers of coded text are to become varied layers of human memory on each surface – like a landscape of floating rhythms, that draw you to explore the imprint of your own belonging within them.
The triggers to his visual articulations include musical pieces of composers like Arvo Part and John Cage, the visuals of filmmakers Andrei Tarkovsky and Akira Kurosawa, along with the metaphysical oeuvre of artist Nasreen Mohammedi. Each becomes a mental sounding board, with the unique potential to create infinite echoes that have inexplicable transmutations.
Born in 1985 in Hoshiarpur, Punjab, Safaya completed his studies in Engineering in 2007. He had his debut solo, Anantata – Hymns of Graphical Notation at Sakshi Gallery in 2019, followed by MEMORY TRACE / DAPAAN (…it is said) at Latitude 28 gallery, New Delhi, in collaboration with Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, in 2023. He was previously part of group exhibitions such as Ufuq – Zarina a Tribute at Bajaj Kamalnayan Gallery, Mumbai, curated by Dr. Arshiya Lokhandwala; Four Conversations in the Room at Sakshi Salon, Mumbai, curated by Rekha Rodwittiya; The Sacred and the Profane at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, curated by Geetha Mehra; and Five for the Future at Nature Morte, Gurgaon in 2013. He was awarded the Glenfiddich Emerging Artist of the Year 2013 (runner-up). He has presented at the TIE Conference 2019 at Santa Clara, California, on the invitation of the Motwani Jadeja Foundation, and also gave a master class to the fellows of the Rajeev Circle Program. He was invited as the first Artist-in-Residence by the Motwani Jadeja Foundation in New York in August 2019 and at ARE Holland as a resident artist in Eschede, Netherlands in April/May 2024.
Safaya currently resides and works at The Collective Studio Baroda, hosted by Rekha Rodwittiya & Surendran Nair.
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