The Night Life of Trees: Durga Bai, Bhajju Shyam, Ram Singh Urveti

Trees are central to the imagination of the Gond community, an Indigenous people from central India. In addition to the stories that surround them, trees are important in a lived, everyday sense. There is a Gond belief that trees are busy during the day, giving shade and food to humans and animals. It is only during the night that their real spirit emerges. Three of the finest living Gond artists - Durga Bai, Bhajju Shyam and Ram Singh Urveti pay homage to the trees and the stories they love, setting them at night, when trees finally can give in to their own spirit life. Their work and their storytellling glow like embers in the dark. I co-curated this exhibition in conjunction with the launch book of the same name at the noted Parisian art book collective Les Trois Ourses.

Also exhibited at: Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London; Bibliotheque Faidherbe, Paris; Apparao Galleries, Chennai