Kiss Taraf Exhibition / Art Installation

Kiss Taraf was an exhibition held at the offices of The Art Paper in October 2023. The exhibition featured the work of Tiffany Singh, brunelle dias, Gitanjali Bhatt, Rhea Maheswari, and Tarika Sabherwal, all women of South Asian descent.

‘Kiss Taraf’ translates from Hindi to 'which way' in English, signalling each artist's exploration of cultural movement, physical travel, and the voyages of people and characters that reflect their own journeys. The title plays with the word 'kiss' and its affectionate meaning in the English language to signify these five artists' love for movement and being moved, regardless of destination or preconceived goals. 'Kiss taraf' signifies the personal passages the artists take to discover their relationship with being tauiwi in Aotearoa.

One of the exhibiting artists, brunelle dias, describes their intention to showcase the work of these artists:

‘oriental’ migrants, as they traverse west and eastward physically and psychologically, their compass reorientates; the needle seems to point towards the heart rather than a destination. The artists journey with their relationship between both directions, indefinitely.

brunelle dias’ paintings examine the sense of place, using a combination of playful titles and imagery to give each piece an idea of location. One piece, Pakuranga Falls, is a long and narrow framed canvas depicting a stream of water pouring from a pot of rice being cleaned. Its size and combination of white and blues to create a heavy flow of water echoes a landscape painting of a waterfall. It is a kind of postcard from a domestic Pakuranga, a suburb that dias calls home.

The experimental filming apparatuses that Gitanjali Bhatt created for this exhibition capture her journey through the South Island, visiting the many filming locations that have been backgrounds to several Bollywood movies. Her video documents these sights, not in their traditional picturesque manner, but through an obscure and abstract lens that de-romanticises these otherwise glorified settings.

Tarika Sabherwahl’s paintings explore stories from several moments in Indian history. The diptych piece The horses whose wings were not clipped references the story from Hindu mythology of Surya, the Sun God’s wife replicating herself into one shadow self that was the mother and wife, and the second into a horse and wandering through meadows. Surya becomes aware of this transformation and then travels to find his wife in her horse form, to turn himself into a horse so they may live together happily. These ink-on-canvas works depict a pair of shadowy horses in greyscale, who each have a set of glowing wings that are of contrasting light colours.

Rhea Maheshwari’s paintings play with perspective and geometry, paying homage to 17th and 18th-century Indian miniature paintings. The piece illuminated portal utilises a minimal colour palette predominantly using purples and blues, with accents of white, black, and green. The composition and content create a painting that is both a tapestry and a landscape that has been methodically mapped out and executed.

In an interview with RNZ’s Blessen Tom, dias explains that the exhibition reflects “the fact we’re on this journey together” as artists creating this exhibition collaboratively without a curator, but as a group.

RNZ: South Asian artists redefine identity and expression with Auckland exhibition