Sohrab Hura
Ghosts in My Sleep
Experimenter, Mumbai

The exploration of what makes a “real memory,” what the renowned American photographer Nan Goldin defines as having “a smell and is dirty,” formed the nucleus of Sohrab Hura’s latest exhibition. It might even be possible to interpret the choice of paintings over photographs here as an attempt to delve further and deeper into the personal relationship one has with memory. In theory, a photograph captures a moment more objectively than a painting. But can a painting, which is able to digress from the “facts” of an experience, somehow get closer to the emotional truth, its smell and its dirt, of a particular moment?

Known primarily for his personal and surreal photography, the Delhi-based artist devoted a large portion of “Ghosts in My Sleep” to paintings, mostly done on paper with gouache. The curation itself evoked a sense of walking through somebody’s private journal; there were no plaques or labels, no information regarding the medium or the year, just titles written on the wall in pen, which created a casual ambience.