WEAVING SHARDS

NIYETI CHADHA KANNAL

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Isograph Pen and Collage on Paper
25x25 inches

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Isograph Pen on Paper
32x40 inches

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Isograph Pen and Acrylic on Paper
30x40 inches

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Isograph Pen and Acrylic on Paper
27x27 inches

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Isograph Pen and Acrylic on Paper
27x27 inches

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Isograph Pen and water color on Paper
25x35 inches

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Isograph Pen, Gouache and Collage on Paper
25x26 inches

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Isograph Pen, Water color and Collage on Paper
22x30 inches

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Isograph Pen and water color on Paper
24x35 inches

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Isograph Pen and water color on Paper
22x30 inches

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Collage, Isograph Pen on paper
27x28 inches

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Collage on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage and Isograph pen on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage and Isograph pen on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage and Isograph pen on Paper
12x16 inch

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Collage and Isograph pen on Paper
12x16 inch

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Welded Mild Steel
5x5x1.5 inch

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Welded Mild Steel
6.5x4.5x5.5 inch

25

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Welded Mild Steel
12x4x2 inch

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Welded Mild Steel
7.5x7.5x2.5 inch

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Welded Mild Steel
20x12x9 inch

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Welded Mild Steel
29x9 x10 inch

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Rapidograph and Pencil on Paper | Isograph Pen
and Acrylic on Paper
6 x 8 inches each

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looking, and from where.

THE FUTURE WILL FOLD

- Himali Singh Soin

You see through the glass. Two planes diverge, converging. There is light in the room, the lines bend.
They hide, like a cobweb in a dark corner. They breed
atop each other, till order spills and reason surrenders. The tension is not released.
In a time that exists in cyberspace, breathes in
words such as windows, walls and portals, where
architecture is liquid, relational and ultimately hypothetical, Niyeti Chadha makes mesmerizing sequences of hand-drawn lines, equally material and
imagined, upturning our preconceived perspectives, inking the rational in the intuitional.
Remember that the quadrant is a triangle.
At one level, Chadhas collages are cut and layered
with sharp edges, inherent with the acceleration-

ism of urban landscapes, the repetition, speed and

technosocial processes that characterize contemporary capitalism. At another, they are minute,
delicate and crafted with deep care. Drawn with a
hyperfine mechanical pen from memory, they are
formal yet full of feeling, precise while they are entirely subjective. As her perspectives distort, angles
fold into one another and vertexes venture towards
vanishing points: the external landscape becomes
representative of an interior confusion or desire.

The viewer/traveler becomes a situationist: lost in the network of lines and longitudes, and free to off-road, to deChadhas constructed vocabulary glides between the or- tour, to walk down not a lane but that site of a protest, not
ganic and the linear, parasitic and symbiotic in turn. The a park but where you made love for the first time, not a
collages move on their own accord, embracing the tra- river but the water that carried your grandmother. The
dition of Futurist painting but without the violence and process of layering of the physical material and spatial exmasculine vitriol that it propagated. She begins with a periences often evokes a sense of mapping, says Chadha,
blueprint, a kind of reference point around which the the maps that are not geographical but are experiences,
piece forms, actively utilizing the craft of knowing and liberated from their dimensional constructs.
not-knowing, one that imbues the work with its strange
sense of spontaneous truth. Her sketches reorganize the What is that word for when a line chooses to divert, formrecognizable, both in plane and dimension, so that the ing an angle, chooses to swing away on some wayward path
viewer is both disoriented and enchanted. In this abstract away from its origin, in the direction of some indefinite and
minimalism is a kind of magic realism that reveals an irreverent source?
imaginary space in which the occupier of space is invited
to re-build. In leaving the work so open to interpretation, Chadhas series of sculptures, the first of their kind, give
the artist hands the viewer the freedom and responsibility dimension to the fragile collages, weight to an otherwise
virtual world. Space--in all its imaginable versions--is broto reimagine a future of their choosing.
ken down. Ultimately, the experience is not of dislocation,
You loop your shoulders, lift your neck. Twist your hip, your but of meditation, not of the robotic but of the romantic,
inner thighs facing each other. Bend. Do not look back, there one that portends danger but holds up a distant elsewhere
to dance towards.
is no one there. The imperative must be disobeyed.

You dream of a bridge connecting the old part of the

city to the new. It is overgrown with creepers that
bend over to spoon its arc. You walk toward it and
you trip once over a cobble stone. When you look up,
there are only buildings like boxes, flyovers beeping
black, scaffolding, cranes like ostriches in the sky.
You freeze, or the image freezes, depending on who is

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Niyeti Chadha Kannal (b.1979) received an M. F. A. in

Printmaking from University of Baroda, and a B.F.A.
from College of Art, Chandigarh, India. She has been
the recipient of prestigious scholarships at the School of
Visual Art, New York (2010), the Manhattan Graphics
Centre, New York (2006), the INLAKS Fine Art Award,
Inlaks Foundation, India (2005) and a Junior Research
Fellowship granted by the University Grants Commission, India (2003).
Shuttling between India and USA, Niyeti has exhibited
widely in India and abroad. A significant solo project
by the artist was titled Drawing Notes at Studio X, a
Global Network Initiative by Columbia University in
Mumbai (2015). Another solo by Niyeti was a site-specific wall drawing titled A Script for a Landscape at

the Queens Museum of Art in New York (2011). Other

exhibitions include The Lay of the Land A Work in
Progress, a group show curated by Anushka Rajendran
(2015); and In You is the Illusion of Each Day, a group
show curated by Dr. Maya Kvskaya, both at Latitude
28, New Delhi (2011); Reconstructing (White) 3, curated by Himali Singh Soin, The Loft at Lower Parel,
Mumbai (2012); Black and White in the Horizon,
Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, & Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S
University, Baroda, India (2011); Nine Her Magic Square Curated by Veerangana Solanki, Viewing
Room, Mumbai (2010); Transforming Technology Philagrafhika, Philadelphia (2010); Size Mattersor
Does It? II, Curated by Bhavna Kakar at Latitude 28,
New Delhi (2010); A Delicate Point, Osilas Gallery, NY
(2010); White Lies, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai, In-

dia (2008); Trends & Trivia - an Indian Story, Visual

Arts Centre, Hong Kong (2008); Erasing Borders- Indian Artists in the Diaspora, Queens Museum of Art,
The Guild Art Gallery, New York (2007); and IAAC
Erasing Borders 2009, Dowd Art Gallery, Elizabeth
Foundation for Arts, Queens Museum of Art, New
York (2009).
Niyetis work has been included in various national and
international fairs too, including in Small Art is Beautiful Dharma curated by Fabrice Bousteau, Beirut
Art Fair (2014). Her works were showcased at the Latitude 28 booth at the India Art Fair (2012 and 2014), as
well as at The India Story in Kolkata (2016).

Installation view of Drawing Notes at Studio X,

a Global Network Initiative by
Columbia University in Mumbai (2015).

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ABOUT LATITUDE 28

Through curated shows, careful strategizing and discovering emerging artists with exciting practices, Latitude 28 over the
years has become synonymous with cutting edge art coming out of the country, seeking out fresh perspectives in its attempt
to stimulate commercial interest in new waves of art-making. The establishment aims to cultivate a space where collectors
and art enthusiasts can interact with younger artists and their practices. It provides a horizontal environment where younger
artists are able to contextualise their work alongside the masters of Indian art, experiment with medium, material and institutional critique. It has supported Kartik Sood, Anindita Dutta, Deepjyoti Kalita, and Shweta Bhattad in their innovative
practices, exhibiting them alongside veterans such as Anupam Sud and Baiju Parthan. The outfit maintains an outlook that
accommodates South Asian art practices and has neo-miniaturist artists like Muhammad Zeeshan, Waseem Ahmed and
Mohammad Ali Talpur in its fold. The gallery collection consequently includes cutting edge contemporary alongside modern
masters.
Latitude 28 has been imagined as an incubation space, generating ideas through curatorial projects, site-specific artworks,
artist talks and curated walks. Exhibitions such as In You Is The Illusion Of Each Day (curated by Dr. Maya Kvskaya, 2011),
Slipping Through The Cracks (curated by Meera Menezes, 2012), Crossing Over (curated by Ambareen Karamat, 2013)
and Sacred/Scared (curated by Nancy Adajania, 2014) tried to initiate renewed readings of artworks within art historical/
socio-political contexts.
Latitude 28 frequently travels to International art fairs, and supports our artists presence at biennales around the world.
The gallery has been part of Art Gwangju (2012), Art HK (2013) [solo booth project by Prajakta Palav], Dhaka Art Summit
(2014), and Art Dubai (2015) [solo booth project by Dilip Chobisa].
Latitude 28 is also committed to generating discourse on contemporary art through projects that are not-for-profit, interacting with the public sphere, and commissioning research articles and critical writing from critics, curators and researchers. It
has also partnered with similar initiatives, facilitating several special projects at the India Art Fair over the years. This investment in the discursive prompted Latitude 28 to support TAKE on Writing | Critic-Community: Contemporary Art Writing
in India organized by TAKE on art (its sister publication), an intensive destination workshop in Goa to cultivate dialogue
among peers on art criticism. The gallery supported Critical Writing Ensembles Baroda Chapter, MS University of Baroda in
December 2015, as well as the Dhaka Chapter of CWE, conceptualised by Katya Garcia Anton that was held in collaboration
with OCA, Norway at the Dhaka Art Summit in 2016. Most recently, the gallery supported The Book Ensemble in New
Delhi, as well as The Book - The New Writing Group workshop organized by TAKE on art in December of 2016.
Latitude 28s vision is shaped by its Founder/Director, Bhavna Kakar, who has over a decades experience as a curator, editor,
and art consultant.

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F 208 GF Lado Sarai, New Delhi 110030

Phone: +91-11-46791111
www.latitude28.com
latitude28@gmail.com