Timeme Mohanty, a three-year-old boy in Delhi, struggled to pedal his bicycle in a circle for days. When he finally succeeded, he yelled: “I rescued speed altogether.” His father, the artist Paribartana Mohanty, thought this was an absurd statement, and hence, an apt title for his solo show, now on view at the Delhi gallery Shrine Empire. The exhibition comprises 12 large paintings and three moving-image works, produced during eight years in which Mohanty documented and researched the demolition of the Kathputli art colony. “All demolitions, at least for me, are absurd acts,” the artist says. Forced evictions and demolitions targeting marginalised communities for “redevelopment” are not new in India. One such case was the Kathputli colony, a slum cluster in west Delhi, which had a rich history spanning decades. Known as one of the world’s largest settlements of street performers—puppeteers, acrobats, magicians and musicians—large parts of the colony were razed by late 2017 as part of a redevelopment drive.
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