Are we unreliable narrators?

Renowned Indian artists investigate the truth about truth at Anupa Mehta’s Mumbai gallery

22 Mar 2025

Is truth irrelevant? Almost a decade ago, Oxford announced “post-truth” as the word of the year in 2016 and anyone with a (then) Twitter account or a television will know exactly why that is. Before them, the Post-Modernists had already declared truth dead in the 1960s. In all the years prior, after and in between, the idea of truth has driven us to the edge of our seats and even made its way to pop culture. Think Harry Potter’s veritaserum or Vanity Fair’s Lie Detector Test. We are obsessed with the idea. We want a confessional, and we want it now. A call for a Voir Dire.

Sharing the moniker of the old French legal term, curator and gallerist Anupa Mehta brings together some of the country’s best-known contemporary artists in an exhibition titled Voir Dire: In the Round at her South Mumbai gallery that investigates what our urgent demand for verity says about us. “Translating to ‘speak the truth’, the name refers to the process of questioning, to uncover facts, both hidden and in plain sight,” explains Anupa. But in an increasingly divisive world, can we truly trust the absolute?

“Truth has many versions depending on who you are and where you come from. Our experiences inform and energise our truths” — Bose Krishnamachari

Inside Anupa Mehta's Mumbai gallery. Artworks showcased here are by (from left) Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu; Photograph courtesy Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art

Versions of verity

Bose Krishnamachari, one of the eight artists whose work is on display at gallery AMCA, states, “Truth has many versions depending on who you are and where you come from. Our experiences inform and energise our truths.” He gestures to his sculpture — a granite pillar, stoic yet ornamental, an architectural symbol. On top sits a bronze tiffin carrier surrounded by two bronze lathis. Everything stands for a larger idea. The lathis, for Bose, are symbolic of Gandhi but they could remind others, say of police brutality, he explains. Truth, or the world we live in, is informed by our individual lived experiences.

Moving through the gallery, different realities appear in succession. Valay Shende draws on the state of democracy through an electronic voting machine caught in a bear trap. Climatic concerns are expressed through a hardy cactus by Arunkumar HG. Benitha Perciyal creates a bust of a male figure as a spectator of displacement. The loss of a collective voice echoes in Chittrovanu Mazumdar’s broken violin. G Ravinder Reddy depicts how a hand of bananas is elevated to the status of sacred. The duality of materials and perceptions manifests through Sudarshan Shetty’s vases. As Riyas Komu stands before his composition that at first glance appears pristine in white, he tells us how automotive colour, which lends the artwork its gloss, can be read as the colour of power and aspiration — and in many ways, the colour of our times. Is our version of verity not constantly influenced by authority?

Bose Krishnamachari draws on the narratives evoked by objects around us; Photograph courtesy Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art

Through an EVM caught in a bear trap, Valay Shende critiques the state of democracy today; Photograph courtesy Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art

Original paradox

Art itself deludes truth. Riyas expresses, “The authenticity and the appearance of art lies in how art moves and we are moved by art. It displaces us from our origins. It’s a work of improvisation, ideas, truths and a constant practice of being human.” Perhaps like truth, authenticity itself is wrapped in trepidation. Is our collective obsession with the two symptomatic of something deeper?

“Everything is an imitation of an imitation, the originality or authenticity comes from approach and perspective, from touch and aesthetics,” counters Bose, continuing, “We are too obsessed with thinking about uniqueness when we should be thinking about experience. The impact from an encounter with an artwork or the memory of it long after you’ve experienced it.”

Riyas Komu’s work Monocromy critiques a world rife with power and surveillance; Photograph courtesy Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art

Best known Indian artists come together to decipher how reality is affected by identity and experience. Artworks showcased here are by (from left) Sudarshan Shetty, Arunkumar HG and G Ravinder Reddy; Photograph courtesy Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art

Troubled times

Art imitates life, or so they say. But is the statement not slightly presumptuous? In the context of Voir Dire, especially so. Art is a product of life itself and affected by the same maladies that plague our existence. A scroll on the internet will tell you, the world we live in is “post-truth”, throwing caution and credibility to the wind. And while we know better than to trust online sources, in this case, the grim prediction rings quite true. “This is a terrifying time where not only facts but histories are being altered and faked. We do not have control over public “truth” or truths endorsed by the state, but we do have control over our personal truths and beliefs,” says Bose. But what does speaking the truth through art mean in an increasingly divided world where cancel culture and censorship run rampant? “We must learn to question everything and speak truth to power consistently not only as artists but also as citizens. It is the only way we can protect our communities and collective humanity.”

Riyas agrees, saying, “We live through a time founded on ruthless power, hatred and omnipresent surveillance. We are ‘worlded’ upside down, blinded and frozen — spiritually, economically, culturally and emotionally.” Is there any escaping this dystopian reality? He avers, “The new agendas by brutal religious fundamentalists partnering with the oligarchy in patronising art and manipulating cultural discourses will only escalate the crisis, rendering creative life more and more vulnerable, fragile and challenging. But speaking the Truth [sic] is the only way to defeat the fear.” The concept of candour itself is a social construct and there may never be an absolute. And it’s probably why we keep calling the life support on the validity of truth time and time again (well, even on Time Magazine’s infamous 2017 cover.) While capital T truth, is something we may never stop looking for, it is perhaps in this search that we might find our humanity.

Voir Dire: In the Round on view at Anupa Mehta Contemporary Art till 30th April 2025

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