How do we bring in the search for the novel or the new into the general brew of the here and now? Or even eternity into the entire spectrum of time and context? Or the idea of here and nowhere in relation to material where objects and ideas comingle? These were the questions that overwhelmed the young minds in the 1980-90s. Nineteen years into the new millennium they still are the most contentious issues.

But there are other facets that have long been pushed to the periphery – the way “one creates separation, privacy and shadow,” and/or “provides connectedness, visibility and light,” to paraphrase Juhani Pallasmaa. Speaking of opaque and transparent matters, the Finnish architect lays out the way architectural alchemy of materials. We may borrow his interpretation of materiality into the domain of the visual arts since it is the image that is often fraught at once with opacity and transparency.    

“In/out of the stones of our mind” is about such concerns over the instability of materials and artistic languages. The works that come under one roof here at Dwip are also about re-emphasising the fact that art is relational – both at the level of ideation and material organization, one art not only speaks to the other, but also created in relation to the other.  

— Mustafa Zaman