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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2008 New York – Bose Pacia presents
Pushpamala N.'s Paris Autumn from September 12 – October 25, 2008. The gallery is located at 508 West 26th Street on the 11th Floor, in the Chelsea district of New York City. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11 to 6 pm and Saturday 12 to 6 pm. The artist will be in attendance at the opening reception on Friday, September 12th from 6 to 8 pm. The public is invited.
Paris Autumn, Pushpamala N.'s third solo exhibition at Bose Pacia New York, is a cinematic installation in the form of a rich movie theatre experience around the title work, a 35-minute experimental short film created from black & white still photographs. Shot in Paris in the style of the gothic thriller, the artist plays detective investigating a forgotten 16th century history. The film runs continuously throughout the exhibition and is accompanied by additional framed photographic works elaborated round the idea of film publicity material. The installation was premiered in the Galerie Zürcher in Paris in 2006 to rave reviews and further developed for a solo exhibition at Nature Morte, New Delhi. The film has been screened in Europe, Canada, and Asia.
Paris, the city in which the artist conceived this body of work, plays a central role in the exhibition. The winding streets and creaking stairwells inspired the artist to develop a baroque narrative about the story of Gabrielle d'Estrées, King Henri IV's beloved, who died unexpectedly at the age of 26. The stark black and white still photographs joined with a disjunctive and jarring score create an insightful contemporary take on the gothic thriller genre.
The story begins with a sighting of the ghost of Gabrielle in the mansion where Pushpamala N. lived during her residency. A glimpse into this secret past compels the artist to begin a quest, first to the Louvre where she discovers Caravaggio's The Fortune Teller. Pushpamala N. continues the investigation throughout Paris as flâneur and detective, "weaving her way through a mysterious urban territory," creating what the art historian Bernard Zürcher has described as "a strange map: with Haussmannian perspectives, where the Eiffel Tower and cafés follow images of urban violence." The photographs, film, and installation in the exhibition create an intuitively cinematic mise–en–scène within the gallery.
Pushpamala N. studied sculpture at the MS University in Baroda, India. Since the mid-1990s she has primarily worked in photo-performance and video. The artist has exhibited widely throughout India and internationally with solo shows at Bose Pacia, New York; Nature Morte, New Delhi; Gallery Chemould, Mumbai; Galerie Zürcher, Paris; and l'Espace Croisé, Roubaix. The artist lives and works in Bangalore.
Credits: Producer: Pushpamala N.; Script and Direction: Pushpamala N.; Photography: Cédric Sartore,
Pushpamala N.; Editing and Sound Design: Sankalp Meshram
Cast: Protagonist: Pushpamala N.; Ghost: Gabrielle Soyer; Cédric: Cédric Vincent; Friends: Bernard and Gwenolee Zürcher; Computer friend: Cédric Sartore