Beyond celluloid

The Rekha  Mody Habiart Foundation’s presents an anthology of Seema Kohli’s artistic films at the Hungarian Information and Cultural Center (HICC) with a theme Questioning Life and Beyond Through Films  on May 17 at 1 - A, Janpath in the Capital. Selja Kumari (Former Union minister and Rajya Sabha MP), in the presence of Chief Guest Anita Ratnam will do the honours of inauguration in the presence of the capital’s culturatti.

The eight experiential video performances, include Unending Dance of Light- Raks E Shams, Is Death Possible, Parikrima, It was a Summer Afternoon, Oroborus, Cogito Ergo Sum, What were you thinking Anyways and Swayamsiddha - Myth, Mind and Movement.

Seema Kohli's works reveals a claiming of feminine subjectivities, an altered concept of feminine sexuality. Her art practice involves various disciplines from drawing, painting, sculptures, installations and performance. The most significant one to emerge out of liner forms and paintings is ‘Performance Art’, Decay, hybridisation and transformation, creating new identity; reshaping belongings, intimacy, a dialogue of matter and memory - all these constitute the language of her work. 

Seema Kohli was a student of philosophy before she became a professional artist. She is still a philosopher and considers – through the medium of her art making – the deepest questions relating to life on our planet. Her central enquiry in this exhibition is into the nature of death whether it is a physical, psychological, para psychological, social or a spiritual phenomena, as well as the final moment most human beings fear. It is also about the various rituals that we conduct at the time of death as a preparation of the journey of the soul.

Seema Kohli is a visual artist based in New Delhi. She studied philosophy at Delhi University and applied arts at South Delhi polytechnic.  She has received minimal formal training in fine arts and  is inspired particularly by the myriad traditions that fall under the umbrella term “Hinduism” but she absorbs readily from other sources too: (Buddhist, Sikh, Sufi, Ancient Greek traditions) making their ideas and stories her own. In her art practice as in her life, she is rigorously anti-dogmatic. Kohli sees herself primarily as a painter.