Ajit Chauhan: A site-specific installation

Curator. San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries: Grove St. Window Installation Site. July – September 2009

Drawing inspiration from artists like Robert Gober and Maurizio Cattelan, Ajit Chauhan uses his work to both dismantle and remake the worlds in which he navigates. From the drawings on the rickshaws he rode in during his trips to India, to attempting to make sense of his growing list of friends on Facebook, Chauhan uses drawing, sculpture, sound and video to discover sites of reflection amid the clanging bells of our current zeitgeist.

Chauhan states, “I enjoy work that kind of cuts through the noise. There is work on the street that is just noise, there is stuff in galleries that just adds to the noise and then there are moments, objects and movements that just stop the noise. They can be small, simple modest gestures or they can be loud expressive things. It’s just the cutting through – that’s what I’m attracted to.”

When considering the direction of the installation at the SFAC Gallery 155 Grove Street space, Chauhan decided on creating one simple, subverted gesture. He will construct a frozen moment in time, an installation that binds his experiences to his imagined worlds, with the viewer lingering, watching curiously and moving between these fictional spaces, these lived memories and whatever else lies between them.