BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Pictures at an Exhibition presents images of one notable show every weekday.
Today’s show: “Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World” is on view at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia through Sunday, March 31. The solo exhibition, co-organized with the San José Museum of Art, is the artist’s first North American survey.
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Installation view of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World," 2018–19, at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Installation view of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World," 2018–19, at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Installation view of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World," 2018–19, at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Rina Banerjee, Take me, take me, take me…to the Palace of love, 2003, plastic, antique Anglo-Indian Bombay dark wood chair, steel and copper framework, floral picks, foam balls, cowrie shells, quilting pins, red colored moss, antique stone globe, glass, synthetic fabric, shells, and fake birds, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY THE ARTIST, PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS
Rina Banerjee, In breathless confinement she wooed an uncertain danger, lit a candle to angeress, a blessed wilderness, a tropical justice, she came to her enacted jungli joy, a letting drew droppings, seeds and leaked solitudes whispers, awoke twice like no other, not like him but like all the others joined a sprawling universe, 2018, Incense sticks, kumkum, Vaseline, turmeric, Indian blouse gauze, fake fingernails and eyelashes, chalk, foam, feathers, fabric, Spanish moss, light bulbs, wax, Silly Putty, quilting pins, plastic tubing, latex and rubber gloves, acrylic and dry pigment, gourd, Horn, urchins, silk, bone, barnacle, marble beads, gold leaf, faux fur, lace, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Rina Banerjee, In breathless confinement she wooed an uncertain danger, lit a candle to angeress, a blessed wilderness, a tropical justice, she came to her enacted jungli joy, a letting drew droppings, seeds and leaked solitudes whispers, awoke twice like no
other, not like him but like all the others joined a sprawling universe (detail), 2018, Incense sticks, kumkum, Vaseline, turmeric, Indian blouse gauze, fake fingernails and eyelashes, chalk, foam, feathers, fabric, Spanish moss, light bulbs, wax, Silly Putty, quilting pins, plastic tubing, latex and rubber gloves, acrylic and dry pigment, gourd, Horn, urchins, silk, bone, barnacle, marble beads, gold leaf, faux fur, lace, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY THE ARTIST AND PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Rina Banerjee, Friendly Fire signal to me this limb lean without width long as sudden snake made phantom to eye disarm him of his tired heel and spectrum of distaste..., 2015, steel structure, textiles, beads, feathers, thread, and bulbs, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS/PRIVATE COLLECTION, RYDAL, PENNSYLVANIA
Installation view of "Rina Banerjee: Make Me a Summary of the World," 2018–19, at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS
Rina Banerjee, A World Lost: after the original island appears, a single land mass is fractured, after population migrated, after pollution revealed itself and as cultural locations once separated did merged, after the splitting of Adam and Eve, shiva and shakti of race black and white, of culture East and West, after animals diminished, after the seas’ corals did exterminate, after this and at last imagine water evaporated...this after Columbus found it we lost it, imagine this., 2013, mixed media, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY THE ARTIST, PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS, AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS
Rina Banerjee, Winter’s Flower—Raw materials from sea and from foul and even from some exotic mice was eaten by a world hungry for commerce made these into flower, disguised could be savored alongside whitened rice, 2009, oyster shells, fish bone, thread, cowrie shells, fur, deity eyes, copper trim, ostrich egg, epoxy American buffalo horns, steel, fabricated umbrella structure, steel stand, pigeon-feather fans, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND ART VANTAGE PCC LTD./THE TIROCHE DELEON COLLECTION
Rina Banerjee, The world as burnt fruit—When empires feuded for populations and plantations, buried in colonial and ancient currency a Gharial appeared from an inky melon—hot with blossom sprang forth to swallow the world not yet whole as burnt fruit, 2009, fans, feathers, cowrie shells, resin alligator skull, globe, glass vials, light bulbs, gourds, steel wire, and Japanese mosquito nets, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS/COLLECTION KIRAN NADAR MUSEUM OF ART
Rina Banerjee, The world as burnt fruit—When empires feuded for populations and plantations, buried in colonial and ancient currency a Gharial appeared from an inky melon—hot with blossom sprang forth to swallow the world not yet whole as burnt fruit, 2009, fans, feathers, cowrie shells, resin alligator skull, globe, glass vials, light bulbs, gourds, steel wire, and Japanese mosquito nets, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS/COLLECTION KIRAN NADAR MUSEUM OF ART
Rina Banerjee, Red Riding Hood, 2010, rooster feathers, steel, knitted mesh, wood, rhinestones, deity eyes, wooden doll, mink fur, cowrie shells, and thread, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS/COLLECTION FLORENCE AND DANIEL GUERLAIN, PARIS
Rina Banerjee, With breath taking consumption her commerce ate while she was being eaten, 2008, glass viles, jute charpai (cot), shells, cotton thread, plastic skull, and sari textile, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND ART VANTAGE PCC LTD./THE TIROCHE DELEON COLLECTION
Rina Banerjee, When signs of origin fade, fall out, if washed away, trickle into separations, precipitate when boiled or filtered to reveal all doubleness as wickedness. Vanishing act that migration, mixation like mothers who hid paternity who could name move me slowly reveal me only when my maker stands straight, 2017, turtle replica in resin, vintage shell lampshades, steel armature, Polynesian wood mask, Pyrex filtration lab glassware, feathers, thread linen, silk, amber vials, cowrie shells, seed beads, and pearls, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS AND GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS AND BRUSSELS/COLLECTION DRAGONFLY, FRANCE
Rina Banerjee, Her captivity was once someone’s treasure and even pleasure but she blew and flew away took root which grew, we knew this was like no other feather, a third kind of bird that perched on vine intertwined was neither native nor her queens daughters, a peculiar other., 2011, Anglo-Indian pedestal 1860, Victorian birdcage, shells, feathers, gourds, grape vines, coral, fractured Charlotte doll heads, steel knitted mesh with glass beads, Kenyan tourist sculptures, and apple gourds, installation view.
BARBARA KATUS/COURTESY PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS/CORNELL FINE ARTS MUSEUM