Indranil Choudhury, Tara Aliya Kesavan
This Bit of That Echo at Transmitter Gallery, 2024

July 20 – August 18
Opening: July 19, 5 -8 pm

Transmitter is thrilled to announce This Bit of That Echo, a two-person exhibition of Indranil Choudhury and Tara Aliya Kesavan, curated by Eva Mayhabal Davis and Lila Nazemian, featuring paintings, ceramic and multimedia sculptures.  

In the show, Choudhury and Kesavan explore materials, processes, and narrative worlds that speculate on our relationship with the physical culture of technology. Pivotal moments in India’s history have birthed evolving technological imaginaries – from nation building experiments in post independence India, economic liberalization in the 90’s, to its current reputation as an information technology hub. Through the lens of these social histories, the artists engage in novel material investigations that raise compelling questions about our contemporary relationship with technology. 

Choudhury’s multimedia sculptures are inspired by the artist’s first encounters with emerging technologies such as cell phones, portable music players, and personal computers. As opposed to Apple’s infectious and seamless minimalism, early advanced technology was characterized by a maximalist futurism —  plentiful knobs, buttons, colors, and shapes.

The essence of those objects inspired Choudhury’s sculptures which combine ceramics, acrylics, transmitters, wires, and sound. All the sculptures allude to sound-making objects such as loudspeakers, acoustic horns, and audio instruments. Furthermore, each of these objects has been programmed to emit audio composed by the artist, which collectively envelops the space in gently evolving soundscapes.

The work is born in part out of a reflection on the evolving cultural values around these technological objects, and how their materiality is suspended between the virtual worlds they transmit and the built environments they occupy.