Rathin Barman
Rathin Barman examines the nuances of the modern built environment as a tool for understanding socio-political history. Architecture is characteristically perceived as a fixed entity, central to validating history yet simultaneously existing outside it. To Barman however, architectural form has also served as an anthropological tool, in building a collective recollection of a place and its people.
For over a decade, Barman, trained as an engineer and then a sculptor, has been working on understanding urban sprawl and how the built environment and architecture adapts itself to a growing influx of people over extended periods of time. He sculpts with the materials of modern construction: wood, concrete, rebar, silicon, and firebrick, often in combination. Barman also references architectural renderings, in-depth interviews, photographs, and anecdotal reconstructions in his practice.
Rathin Barman (b. 1981) lives and works in Kolkata. Education: 2010 Master of Fine Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata; 2008 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Faculty of Visual Arts, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Solo Exhibitions: 2020, Dimensional Distortion, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2019, The Thinking Forest is Not a Metaphor, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2018 Exhibition at Art Basel, Basel; 2017 Making of a Home, Final exhibition of IFA Museum Fellowship 2016-17, IGRMS Bhopal, India; 2016 Home, and a Home, curated by Suman Gopinath, Singapore Biennale, Singapore; 2015 No… I Remember It Well, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2014 A House With A View, Kochi- Muziris Biennale Coletoral Project, Kochi; Landscape from Memory (Situation 1), curated by Diana Campbell, Dhaka Art Summit; A Goldfish Bowl, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore; 2012 Untitled, curated by Tom Eccles, Frieze Art Fair, New York Sculpture Park, New York; Untitled, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Massachusetts; 2011 And My Eyes Fill With Sand…, Experimenter, Kolkata; Involvement with Green & White, Sandarbh, Rajasthan. Group Exhibitions: 2021 On Site at Bikaner House; 2020 City Tales, Kiran Nadar Museum of Arts, New Delhi; 2019, Deeper within its Silence, curated by Sumakshi Singh, Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi; By All Estimates, 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Arts, Sydney; Searching for Stars Amongst the Crescents, Experimenter, Kolkata; Burnish/Tarnish curated by Girish Shahane, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi; 2018 I Wish to Let You Fall Out of My Hands (Chapter II), Experimenter, Kolkata; 2016 Raster – Emerging from the grid, Experimenter, Kolkata; 2015 Land of No Horizon – II, Experimenter, Kolkata; India Art Fair, presented by Experimenter, Kolkata; 2014 Urban Utopia, curated by Lyla Rao, Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata; Midnight’s Grandchildren, Studio X, Mumbai; Land of No Horizon, Nature Morte (in association with Experimenter, Kolkata), New Delhi; 2011 53rd National Exhibition of Art 2011- 2012, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai; Why Not Place Residency Show, Religare Art Initiative, New Delhi; 2010 Unbounded, Gallery Kolkata, Kolkata; Students’ Annual Exhibition, RBU, Victoria Memorial Hall, Kolkata. Residencies / Grants / Biennales: 2019 Civitella Foundation, Umbria, Italy; 2016 IFA Museum Research Fellowship; 2015 Lyon Biennale; Vancouver Biennale.