Artist Shaurya Kumar redefines divinity in objects

What happens when the walls of the sanctum crumble or the tombs are emptied, columns of temples and idols are carted off to mantles of private collectors or cultural artefacts vanish without a trace and temples are left in ruins? “The devotee’s faith in divinity is shaken and the memory of the object gets fragmented,” says artist Shaurya Kumar whose ongoing exhibition at the Threshold Gallery puts out a stark and meaningful representation of long-vanished slices of history. “The plunder in India happened during peace time, when the country was not in religious or political turmoil, unlike events in the Middle and near East where ancient religious sites and artefacts were destroyed by the extremist forces,” says Shaurya, now a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A 2015 article in The New York Times about an American art dealer of Indian origin, who was recently convicted for the illegal export of 19 antique idols to his gallery in New York, made Shaurya re-examine the definition of divinity in objects and the iconoclasm of destruction. The sculpture, ‘A Case of the Broken Hands’ includes reproduction of black-and-white photographs of 40 unidentified sculptures reflecting the tactical and visual engagement between the devotee and the divine and provides a critical understanding of religious and spiritual realization At Threshold Art Gallery, C-221, Sarvodaya Enclave; Till December 20; 11 am to 7 pm