One impulse, many manifestations: Indian Habitat Centre exhibition celebrates artistic creativity

In 2014, the Indian Habitat Centre (IHC) launched PhotoSparks, a weekly feature on YourStory showcasing photographs that highlight the spirit of creativity and innovation. Over the course of 1,015 posts, the feature covered a diverse range of events, including art festivals, cartoon galleries, world music festivals, telecom expos, millets fairs, climate change expos, wildlife conferences, startup festivals, Diwali rangoli, and jazz festivals.

Recently, the IHC hosted an art exhibition titled 'One | Many', featuring the works of 12 artists. The exhibition was curated by artist Pabitra Pal, who spoke to YourStory about the exhibition's concept. Pal explained that 'One | Many' is a multidisciplinary exhibition, encompassing painting, sculpture, ceramics, and mixed media. The exhibition aims to celebrate both unity and diversity, emphasizing the singular impulse to create and the myriad forms that impulse takes.

Pal describes the exhibition as a gathering of paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and mixed media that explore various aspects of the human experience. He notes that the bold strokes and quiet washes on canvases engage in conversations about identity, memory, and belonging. Sculptures, he adds, command space with presence and pause, inviting viewers to circle, reflect, and discover new angles.

Ceramics, with their tactility and ritual, carry traces of touch, time, and transformation, while mixed media works splice and combine image, object, and text into layered narratives that resist a single reading and reward careful looking.