The exhibition is called “Shiva Blues”.
It is signed Anne Garde.
It is held at the Alliance Française in Delhi until January 14, 2024.
It is accompanied by this text.
“Blue like Shiva” (Neel Khanta (in Bengali)) is the vision of a world when we were travelling the roads of North India in search of treasures, forms, architectures and objects in the indians salons (cf. Salon Indien ed. Hazan 1996)…
On the hot and sandy roads of Rajasthan, we came across these men and women,as beautiful as gods.
Then I would leave the Ambassador, which served as my studio, and capture them with the greatest camera, the Hasselblad loaded with 120-6X6 film, the only one to have been authorised to take photos on the Moon…
On my return, I dipped these reversible films, which were also called slides when they were smaller, in a different chemical bath. I lost the reversal, the transparency of the image, but harvested a negative from which inverted and insane colours sprang up.
What retained me then, was that at the heart of these vivid colours, the flesh of humans was blue.
The reverse of the colours and shadows joined the myth of Shiva at the Blue Throat, named “Neelkanta”.
Inspired by the multifaceted Hindu mythology, I discovered a sign, and not the least.
That the God Shiva, with his destructive and regenerative power, was chosen, according to the Vedic literature, to save the World threatened by demons (asuras).
A nectar from the depths (amrut) came out of the Ocean, but also a violent poison that Shiva, with a “calm temperament” according to the texts, promised to drink.
He said he would drink the Halahala before it spread and destroyed the world.
So , to stop the spread of the Halahala, the goddess Parvati, his consort, strangled Shiva’s neck and he turned blue. For this reason, Shiva is also called “Neelkanta”, Shiva with the Blue Throat.
Anne Garde
Anne Garde : Shiva Blues
Until January 14, 204
Opening Thursday January 4, 2024
Alliance Française de Delhi
72, KK Birla Ln, Lodhi Gardens, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi, Delhi 110003, India
https://delhi.afindia.org/
