Magic realism, technology, social justice come together in this exhibition in Mumbai

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‘Reincarnate: We meet here in the Afterlife’ is a solo exhibition of artworks by multidisciplinary artist Shilo Shiv Suleman, who has combined magical realism, technology and social justice to create a remarkable body of works.

This exhibition in Mumbai has brought together artworks that span painting, sculptures and also a series of poetic love letters. There is an element of the eternal in Suleman’s works such as seeds that can germinate after thousands of years of germination.

The artist takes the viewer through a journey of eternal life, death, floods and reincarnations.

There are studies in brass and semi-precious stones, gold leafing on archival paper, mixed media on paper, acrylic and oil on canvas and installation art on display in this exhibition that will be going on till .

“Our first encounter with the afterlife is with earth. Bone, body we turn back into nature at the end of a lifetime. We return to soil and live forever,” she says.

Weaving the current pandemic with the eternal, Suleman says: “2020 was a death and resurrection, but our worlds have ended so many times and begun again. Our myths and monuments are testament to the ever living- bodies that turn into gardens, civilizations that live beneath the shifting sands of empires, lovers‟ tombs overgrown with ivy, flood myths and end of the world stories. Every incarnation is meant to serve a cosmic purpose. The purpose of an incarnation is said to be reestablishment of dharma, righteousness, destruction of evil and protection of the good and so Krishna says in the Gita ‘’’Sambhavami yuge yuge (I will appear again and again to help humanity redeem itself.)”

The artist articulates the idea that lovers leap from lifetime to lifetime seeking solace and fulfilment in each other’s embrace.

In a series of love letters illuminated in real gold, she writes, “I’ve known you before/I‟ll know you forever.‟

The 31-year-old artist is the founder-director of the Fearless Collective, a movement that aims at replacing fear with love in public space. She has also worked with communities across the world by facilitating and leading public art interventions in Brazil, Beirut, South Africa, and Pakistan.

While she has worked with indigenous communities in Brazil, in Beirut she has worked with displaced and migrant communities. In South Africa Suleman collaborated with queer activists and with transgender activists in Pakistan.

She was invited by Ted Global to give a talk on “Using Tech to Enable Dreaming” which was attracted more than a million views in 2012.

‘Reincarnate: We meet here in the Afterlife’ is on display at Art Musings in Mumbai. The show will go on till February 28.