This exhibition explores the meaning of events deeply steeped in military pageantry that can appear to the viewer as bearers of lofty significance and value, and a number of apparently random and puzzling events, which are in fact loaded with hidden meaning.

Through the juxtaposition of the works of three artists, Amar Kanwar, Shahzia Sikander and Pascual Sisto, this program suggests that events that are rooted in tradition and in courtly spectacles follow similar modes and rituals of anodyne events (as one can gather from the procession of joggers and cyclists in Pascual Sisto’s Beneath the Paving Stones the Beach and the retinue of army bands in Shahzia Sikander’s Bending the Barrel).

   

As all the events depicted follow a stringent and yet enigmatic logic, the viewer will question which event is devoid and which one is full of meaning. The title of this exhibition is culled from a sentence that overlays an image of a Pakistani army band in Shahzia Sikander’s latest video Bending the Barrel.