ARTAFRICAREVIEWSHUMAN TRAFFIC / ALLIE BISWAS
HUMAN TRAFFIC
Rina Banerjee at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris
by Allie Biswas
The title of Rina Banerjee’s recent exhibition at the Paris outpost of Galerie Nathalie
Obadia was perhaps the most declarative yet of the artist’s interest in the mesh between
cultural identity and migration. For ‘Human Traffic,’ Banerjee displayed thirteen objects –
namely monumental sculptures, large-scale wood panel paintings and seamless multimedia
works on paper – that explored the nuances relating to the circulation of people, noted as
a phenomenon of our current times. ‘Human Traffic’ followed multiple presentations by
the artist this year, including ‘Migration’s Breath’ (OTA Fine Arts) and ‘Tropical Urban’
(Jacob Lewis Gallery), and Banerjee’s work is currently also on show at MoMA PS1’s
fourth iteration of ‘Greater New York.’Attentive to what she describes as ‘the value of our desire to travel,’ the artist’s examination
of various kinds of movement is reflected by the abundance and diversity of everyday
objects that form her immense, multifaceted sculptural assemblages, as well as the
elaborate and intricately detailed compositions of her paintings. Both formats radiate
rich, glowing colours and sensuous textural qualities.The exhibition opened with a long rectangular painting on paper positioned next to
a bulbous sculpture, both of which were displayed on the wall. The duo acted as a
synopsis of the distress that often frames migratory experiences. In Petty crime, shame on
her mind (2014) a contorted nymph-like female, whose finger- and toenails are notably
painted red, was positioned in the middle of the frame. Above her head can be seen airy1/4 ARTAFRICA