Influences II

Sahej Rahal, artist.

I saw Rahal's works, UNDERGOD and Saras, at the Cairns Brewery last year as part of the Liverpool Biennial.

Now every time I stutter over a detail I remind myself of the raw immediacy of this piece - material was pummeled, stuffed and stretched in a clay-fest orgy. Meaning was unnecessary, engulfed (for me) by the sense of spontaneity in the handling of the material. I don't remember the furniture but looking at the image below, it makes sense; the desks support and ground the installation in the environment. The highlight of the Biennial.

Sahej Rahal UNDERGOD 2016 and Saras 2012

An exerpt from the Biennial website:

Sahej Rahal (b. 1988, Mumbai, India) lives in Mumbai. Rahal’s installations, films and performances are part of an elaborate burgeoning mythology. He creates it by drawing characters from a range of sources, from local legends to science fiction. By bringing these characters and narratives into dialogue with each other, Rahal creates scenarios where indeterminate beings emerge into the everyday, as if from the cracks of our civilization.

At Liverpool Biennial 2016, Rahal’s sculptures imagine artefacts from science fiction and popular culture thousands of years into the future, fossilised. These belong within a burgeoning mythology, which draws on characters from a range of sources, from local legend to science fiction. He encourages these indeterminate beings to emerge into our everyday lives, as if through cracks in our civilisation.

http://www.biennial.com/2016/exhibition/artists/sahej-rahal