Dubai-based Indian artist Mukesh Shah is showcasing a series of multimedia works in his first solo exhibition in the city, “In Between”. The title of the show references the Japanese concept of “Ma”, which is the pure and essential void between things or the emptiness that is full of possibilities, such as the silence between the notes that makes the music. Through the repetitive lines and geometric shapes in his abstract, monochromatic compositions, Shah draws attention to what lies in between, offering viewers empty spaces for deeper introspection.
Shah was born in Aden, Yemen, educated at Eton and Cambridge in the UK, and moved to Dubai three years ago. He has no formal training in art, but he believes that has helped him to work with freedom in developing his own visual language. He prefers earthy colours and uses simple materials such as paper, cardboard, gauze and string to add texture and an organic feel to his work.
“My practice is an innate response to change and the narratives that impact me. But in a noisy world bombarded with myriad narratives and media images, nothing lingers on, and a personal story has a minimal and short-term impact. Abstraction thus becomes relevant because it goes beyond individual narratives towards the universal. Also, if you look at anything figurative long enough, it starts to dissolve into abstraction. I want to explore that space where figuration dissolves into abstraction. Through compositions that have a geometric structure with space, repetition, and chance as keynotes, I try to dwell in an abstract space that is contemplative and detached, but also human and compassionate. My work is introspective, and for me the process of making the work is important in itself. I use various materials to add tactile texture and physicality to the work,” he says.
In most of his works, Shah has used repetitive lines and geometric shapes to explore what lies in between, such as the pause between words, life between birth and death, or the moment between the previous one and the next. But in a series of ink and acrylic prints, he has played with shapes that allude to doors. “We do not know how many doors we pass through as we move from one space to another in our lives, just as we are unaware of passing from one moment to another. Doors are a wonderful expression of Ma or a negative space that is defined by the emptiness surrounding the physicality,” he says.
Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.
“In Between” will run at XVA Gallery in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, Bur Dubai, until July 5.
