Areez Katki
Some Retained Delights
October 9th – 26th
Implementing work within the parameters of 20 odd square pieces of found cloth, each between 400-600mm, Katki embroiders a series of useful textiles yet again; handkerchiefs – found in his late-grandfather’s vanity chest drawer; stolen from the purse of an octogenarian matriarch or two; sourced from a Khadi vendor down the road from his ancestral home; found at a flea market in Athens; joyfully discovered next to the home of Mario Praz in Rome; taken from the kitchen of Pierre Jeanneret’s villa where Katki spent one restless night in Chandigarh. These squares serve as his ground for intimate mark making. Synesthetic responses to heuristic, contemplative thought contemporaneously sit upon & beside the ephemera of remembrances. Addressing how certain evocative gestures, whether grand or minute, may be preserved for one’s pleasure. 
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Some Retained Delights 

simultaneously investigates the realms of experiential & historic matter. Participating in elegiac processions through the lush grounds of a Zoroastrian sky burial site; revisiting childhood tropes of lost and found objects; contemplating the joys of Mughal gift giving; distantly observing the linear relationships between bodies as they lean against one another
barely
touching.
Fragmented assemblages of embroidered forms have been placed in grid-like compositions to evoke the collectability of thought and form. Allowing some to undulate and metamorphose, recorded through needlework markings contained within windowpane checks of hand woven cloth. Addressing the fragmentary nature of (an often collective) memory, Katki’s new works rest between the genres of storytelling and historicisingi – executed by reviving a cluster of humble textiles. In the process of encountering, acquiring and citing textual stimuli, he has borrowed iconography from Parsi poet Gieve Patel ii , ideologies around the importance of tactile memory imbedded in objects iii from Edmund de Waal’s nonfiction writings and the principles of quality, nature & definitioniv from Annie Beasant, with further applied theosophical discourse in essays by H.S Olcottv. Having formulated and executed these works between May–October 2019; over his summer residency in Athens, a brief sojourn in Rome and remaining months during a revisitation of his home in Mumbai. Gleaning from various sources of mark making, presented forth is an intimate space where one may reflect & perhaps appraise their associations with memory and time. 

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i Cullinan, Nicholas. In Part: Fragments of Modernity. (2015). Quaderno #2. Fondazione Prada: Milano.
ii Patel, Gieve. How Do You Withstand, Body. (1976). Clearing House: Bombay.
iii De Waal, Edmund. The Hare with the Amber Eyes. (201o). Chatto & Windus: London.
iv Beasant, A. Leadbeater, C.W. Thought Forms. (1910). The Theosophical Publishing House: London.
v Olcott, H.S. Applied Theosophy and Other Essays. (1975). The Theosophical Publishing House: Madras.