Sudarshan Shetty: Shoonya Ghar

Sudarshan Shetty presents “Shoonya Ghar, 2015″ along with a Marquette of  the sculpture that was exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Delhi and Biennale of Sydney, a new film work that continues his exploration of the cycles of life and death and investigates the symbolism and theatricality inherent in ritual.

The title, “Shoonya Ghar”, translates to ‘empty is this house’, referencing a twelfth-century poem by Gorakhnath, a guru associated with the traditions of Nirgun poetry and ideas of emptiness, formlessness and the void. ‘Shunya gadh shahar, shahar ghar bats’ (In the empty fort, a city, in the city, a settlement) speaks of ten gates that are symbolic of bodily senses through which various temptations threaten to enter. The setting of the film is an abandoned quarry near Loavala, in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, a surreal, empty landscape.