We archive history in many ways. Manuscripts in libraries, artefacts in museums, documents catalogued with precision. But how do you archive art, or rather, something as intangible as what an artist was thinking, creating and evolving through at a particular moment in time?
A new exhibition, ‘Moving Archives’, takes on that very question. Featuring 22 contemporary artists and over 50 works, the exhibition is on view at Bikaner House, New Delhi, until February 23.
Among them is Arunkumar HG’s 2007 painting ‘Cross-Section of the Mind’. A thin image of a head stretches across the canvas, crisscrossed by restless lines, as if reflecting the many thoughts running through the artist’s mind. “There’s so much chaos in the head, but at the same time, he wants to make some sort of alignment,” says curator Ranjita Chaney.
Nearby stands a large elephant, constructed in 2023 from reclaimed material. The two works are separated by over 15 years. “You see an evolution here. There is a language that has evolved. There’s a growth that the artist has experienced. So he’s undone a lot of things and he’s added a lot of things,” Chaney adds.
An archive is no retrospective. “We’re not talking about the ‘best’ works,” says the curator. “We’re asking different questions: Why did an artist do a particular thing? What becomes of an artist over time? Many of them are engaging with ecology, with society, you see those conversations shift.” Archiving, she explains, means putting everything together, the conversations, the sketches.
What becomes of an artist
Bengaluru-based artist Preksha Tater, who is part of the exhibition, says the idea of archiving here “is not just about documenting objects, but moments, thoughts, silences – the intangible. It’s not limited to visual art; it can extend to poetry, music, dance, anything that carries lived experience over time. When you bring together works created across years, that very act becomes an archive of evolving thoughts and contexts.”
Chaney admits that artists may not immediately understand how this exercise benefits them. “The only benefit they might see is that they have people like us who are putting together a document of their practice. People are interested in talking about theatre, cinema, and music. But there are very few people who want to talk like that for artists.”
Chaney also points to the lack of writing and documentation around contemporary art. “I’ve been in this field for 20 years. When I was doing my master’s in art history, I thought I would engage with something contemporary. But the thesis I was assigned was still on the 16th century. I kept wondering: Who is writing about us?” she says. That question eventually became the idea behind the exhibition.
A niche but growing segment
Documenting and archiving art remains a niche but expanding area. For instance, art historian Gayatri Sinha’s The Critical Collective focuses on building a body of knowledge around Indian and South Asian visual art.
Such initiatives provide further context to artists and their works, while contributing to the wider art history.
