Akshay Raj Singh Rathore
Rise / Fall 2015 Watercolor and ink on paper, archival print
Versed in a range of media, including sculpture, installation, performance, photography, drawing, and animation, Akshay Raj Singh Rathore makes elegant, thoughtful works, through which he reflects on the resonance of the past in the present and addresses the complexity of cross-cultural relations. Rathore’s work is imbued with a sense of time—many of his pieces read as simultaneously ancient and contemporary. In Maati (2012), for example, he says he sculpted his “physical and psychological environment, our way of life, everyday objects, landscapes” out of clay, a material rife with references to the beginning of humanity and the endurance of the past. After amassing clay impressions of such things as a Goodyear tire, a strand of prayer beads, and his own face, Rathore buried them in a pit, where they may be discovered, and deciphered, by future generations.
Indian, b. 1978, Madhya Pradesh, India courtesy of artsy.net