Chronicle is Parag Tandel’s first solo exhibition at TARQ. In this exhibition, Tandel showcases a series of sculptures cast in resin that represent shapes and colours from memories of his childhood. The change in the seascape in Mumbai over the passage of time is essential to the artist’s life and practice, as a member of one of Mumbai’s original communities, the Koli community.
His works in this show focus on ideas of ecology and migration through the vivid imagery of the creatures of the sea, both real and imagined. The sculptures invoke a mystical, almost mythical representation of underwater life, and engage the viewer in thought about how these changes may affect our immediate future. By using fantastical colours from his early experience, Tandel invites us to understand exactly what it is that we are doing to our planet every day.
According to Tandel, the materials and forms of everyday symbols he grew up with for the most part, manifest in his work. He says, “My work stems from the idea of using found objects, to reuse them, and then construct fresh entities. I inquire into the history as well as contemporary times of my community. I have grown up listening to chronicles of the past, which, for me, are almost fable-like and imaginative; I sense after years these fables are beginning to mount into myth, they are transforming into layers similar to the residue structures in our minds.”
