Curator : Shristi Sainani
Host : Sarina Vaswani 
Dates : 26th Feb 2025 - 2nd March 2025 
Artists : Ahalya Rajendran, Viraj Mithani, Tarini Sethi, Joseph Mobolaji Aina, Williams Chechet.
             
              
 The critically-acclaimed film, ‘After sun.’, narrates tender recollections of a 11-year-old’s last vacation to
Turkey with her father, where the idealistic man drifts through the occasional frictions that come along with
being a young parent. With a sense of playfulness and thoughtfulness, there also seeps doubt. At instances,
there are rifts that succumb to unprecedented occurrences. However, energy between the father and his
daughter, is affectionate, soothing and familiar. They oscillate from one setting to another, moving from
domesticity to urbanscapes, grounds covered in ornate tiles to shores caressed by Middle-Eastern ocean water.
The film, ‘After sun.’, is an act of imaginative empathy. Writer and director, Charlotte Wells, intersperses a
sabbatical with surreal dream-like sequences.

A parent's existential anxiety is portrayed. A powerful, heartrending portrait of their relationship is depicted.

The proposed exhibition, ‘After sun.’, draws inspiration from the film to put forth a sweet, nostalgic
perception, with artists personal and collective histories to mediate on childhood, parenthood, nurturing and
remembrance. There is a wrestle amongst happenstances and experiences of institutions that tie parenthood
to naiveté, sometimes leaving threads behind to traces of the cracks and crevices that come along, through
visuals, poems, architectonics and an entirety of the cosmos.

Poet and Essayist, Ross Gay, beautifully constructs through his text ‘Poem to My Child, If Ever You Shall Be’ :

and everything on this earth, little dreamer, little dreamer

of the new world, holy, every rain drop and sand grain and blade

of grass worthy of gasp and joy and love, tiny shaman,

tiny blood thrust, tiny trillion cells trilling and trilling,

little dreamer, little hard hat, little heartbeat,

little best of me.

The exhibition, ‘After sun.’, includes the works of five contemporary artists : Ahalya Rajendran, Viraj
Mithani, Tarini Sethi, Joseph Mobolaji Aina and Williams Chechet.

Ahalya Rajendran’s gentle manifestations on wasli paper showcase the illusive whims of children, where they
frolic, unrestrained to inhabit, explore, inquire, make, rest and play. The works exude a soft, carefree
disposition filled with wonder and awe, reminiscent of the temperament held by the 11-year old protagonist
in the film. The artist takes inspiration from the scenery drawn from her contiguity of a small village called
Thenmala in Kollam district of Kerala (India).

The artist, born and raised in Mumbai (India), Viraj Mithani, presents a set of paper works that depict the
sentiments of jest, joy and angst. The interplay of colour, form, texture and layers showcase the abstractions
of the occasional frictions that come along with being a young parent. Between the father and child (in the
film), are moments of levity and sport, rejoice and laughter as well as a worry, resistance and apprehension.
On the other hand, Mithani’s works in canvas titled, ‘Sweet Disposition’, brim with colour and escapades of
memory, stemming from the artist’s experienced and perceived childhood. The hues, spirited and energetic,
transport a viewer into a space of innocent jamboree.

Also included are works of New Delhi (India) based artist Tarini Sethi. The artist explores themes like human
intimacy and body-consciousness, focussing on themes of world building, mythology, folk stories and dream
worlds. Much like the film, her practice and presented works are created in direct response to her
understanding of declining mental health and skepticism of current political and social discourse.

There are also two large oil on canvas works by Nigerian-British artist, Joseph Mobolaji Aina as part of the
exhibition. His abstracted landscapes coincide with the scapes presented in the film ‘After sun.’ The dreamy
blues, and passionate reds sit subtly against the dense foliage of greens. A road that must be taken. A
decision, must be made. A turn that that leads to a destination, unknown — like in parenting, every step is a
risk that we must take.

Born in Kano and raised in Kaduna (Nigeria), the artist Williams Chechet pushes the technique of collage to
nudge his viewers and audiences on how narratives are constructed and framed. The approach unfurls also
the act of memory-making, much of which is glued in fragments — with ounces of myth, perspective and
delusion; rooted part in reality. Just as in the film, Chechet propels the reconstruction of past, which serves as
a powerful tool for introspection and critiquing everyday structures that govern lives.