shilpa at sakshi

after a long time i really enjoyed an art exhibition yesterday with shilpas recent work at the new sakshi gallery in town. she had worked with a variety of different media, sophisticated computer softwares and projections, photographs, found objects and paintings with tape on the wall. the work never reduced itself to simplistic readings because of the playful way in which she subverted the gravity of the message by her playful use of the media. internal contradictions were always present in the way that we were seduced into enjoying the act of participating with the work. the military fatigues, the large scale photographs, the flag made of words addressed the fascism of media and market while at the same time ironically referencing agit-prop work. it seemed as if she was intensely aware of the ironies inherent in the binaries that are necessarily to be created for self-consciously political work and was playing with them, but not denying the necessity for voices of protest to be heard.