P.S.1 presents a large-scale wall installation by the artist Chitra Ganesh, for the second installment of the new series "On-site" which continues P.S.1's long standing tradition of commissioning site-specific, wall based projects. Ganesh's new wall piece, The Silhouette Returns (2009), is on view in the P.S.1 lobby from October 1, 2009 through February 22, 2010.
Chitra Ganesh creates wall installations, paintings, drawings, photographs, and animations that make use of an expansive visual vocabulary that ranges from Bollywood films, comics and graphic novels, to iconic feminist imagery. For P.S.1's lobby, she presents The Silhouette Returns (2009) which features elements in Sumi and India inks, cut paper, washes of color, and found objects like sequins, plastic fruits, and fake hair. For this installation - her brightest wall piece to date - the artist draws from the aesthetics of glam rock and the kitsch of The Rocky Horror Picture Show which is evident in the use of glitter and the vivid orange and yellow hues. The piece draws inspiration from the character, The Silhouette, in Alan Moore and David Gibbons' 1980s graphic novel Watchmen. As one of the original superheroes in the comic book series, The Silhouette is discriminated against and ultimately murdered for coming out as a lesbian.
As a whole, the work suggests links between myth, ritual, and high and low culture as well as connections between countries and continents. Like in past installations, she seeks to excavate and circulate buried narratives typically excluded from the official canon.
Chitra Ganesh (b. 1975 Brooklyn, New York) currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Ganesh's work has been exhibited widely at venues including the Brooklyn Museum, the Queens Museum of Art, the Asia Society, Bronx Museum of Art, Exit Art, White Columns, Momenta Art, and Apex Art in New York. International venues include the Gawngju Art Museum, Korea; Fondazione Sandretto, Italy; Nature Morte, New Dehli; Montehermoso Center, Spain; ZKM, Germany; and the Royal College of Art, London.
On-site 2: Chitra Ganesh is organized by Klaus Biesenbach, P.S.1 Chief Curatorial Advisor and MoMA Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art; Christopher Y. Lew, P.S.1 Manager of Curatorial Affairs; Tim Goossens and Kate McNamara, P.S.1 Curatorial Assistants.