12 Sep 2017

Sahej Rahal's first Scottish solo exhibition comes to CCA Glasgow in September

This summer, Mumbai-based artist Sahej Rahal has been developing a new body of work on residency at Cove Park. This will be presented in CCA's gallery – his first solo exhibition in Scotland – from September.

Rahal works with a range of media including performance, video, installation and sculpture to explore an imagined destruction of the world as we know it. His work draws upon sources ranging from local folk legends, political events and science fiction – which are brought into dialogue with one another in the gallery space – creating an elaborate and absurd mythology of imagined futures. Using discarded objects found during his residency in Scotland, Rahal has created artefacts which act as portals to a multitude of different times and spaces.

The exhibition will display entirely new works, all created during Rahal's eight-week residency at Cove Park; a combination of re-made previous works alongside completely new sculpture and clay objects. Large charcoal and ink drawings have also been produced during the residency, alongside a development of Dry Salvages – a film first shown during Rahal's exhibition in Nottingham earlier this year.

The exhibition centres on a grimoire, a book of magic spells, and a collection of artefacts excavated from an imagined, temporary land – Barricadia – charting its borders and histories. The objects and narratives that construct Barricadia stitch together fictional encounters, historical fact and contemporary political events in India, such as the peaceful 'not in my name' protests that followed a series of Islamophobic lynchings across the country. Existing sculptures and performances have been remade and repurposed as part of a series of episodic exhibitions; first at Primary, Nottingham earlier this year, and travelling to MAC, Birmingham in 2018.

Rahal said: 'Barricadia emerges, fragmented across borders and histories. It is a temporal, autonomous, organic place. It is built and undone each day and each night it is rebuilt upon the masonry of hope held steadfast across lands, across ages against the dire winds of hate.'

This exhibition is curated by Ainslie Roddick. Roddick has worked at CCA since 2012, as Programme Coordinator and Curator. At CCA she has previously co-curated The Sky is Falling – an exhibition and event programme exploring perspectives on urban space – and CCA's current summer exhibition The House That Heals the Soul. She has curated several group and solo shows at CCA with artists including Gregor Wright, Laura Oldfield Ford, Clara Ianni, Carol Rhodes, Lauren Gault, Allison Gibbs, Jeremiah Day, Giles Bailey, Rob Churm and Pio Abad. This is her first solo exhibition since fully taking on all curatorial duties in CCA, alongside Viviana Checchia, Public Engagement Curator, and Francis McKee, Director.

Roddick said: 'It has been great working with Sahej and Cove Park over the last year to bring this work to CCA – Sahej is a prolific thinker and maker and it's been a great process working through the sculptural works and performative actions together. I think his work here will speak to practitioners working in the city who think through materials and sculptural practice, and will also raise important questions about the (art) worlds we all create for ourselves in uncertain times.'

Sahej Rahal's exhibition and residency is the most recent partnership between CCA and Cove Park. The two organisations have developed several international projects together in recent years. In 2008, Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas was based at Cove Park for three months and the work produced resulted in a solo exhibition at CCA and the publication Autoconstrucción. In 2012, and in partnership with Chisenhale Gallery, London, Cove Park hosted Berlin-based artist Mariana Castillo Deball and work developed during her residency was exhibited at CCA and Chisenhale.

Supported by Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship Fund and British Council Scotland.

Sahej Rahal
Barricadia

Sat 16 September – Sun 29 October
Tue-Sat: 11am-6pm // Sun: 12noon-6pm // Free // Preview: Fri 15 September, 7pm-9pm

Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA), 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD


Events:
Artist and curator exhibition tour, Sat 16 Sep, 1pm, Free on the door
Barricadia curated film programme including Narcissicon (2012) by Kiran Subbaiah, and Forerunner (2013) by Sahej Rahal, Tue 19 Sep, 6pm, Free but ticketed
Film screening, Stalker (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) Wed 4 Oct, 6pm, Free but ticketed
Reading and discussion event, Tue 24 Oct, 6pm, Free but ticketed