Alan Kilpatrick
In Spite of the Gods
8th January - 12th February, 2008

Art First is pleased to present this exhibition in which Kilpatrick continues to explore the cultural diversity of contemporary India. He particularly focuses on the receding values of labour and commitment to ritual, whilst maintaining an empathy with the paradox and sacrifice that modernity brings.

He has used a residency in Bangalore (Bengaloru) and lengthy researches in Calcutta (Kolkata) and New Delhi to gather the material for sequences of drawings of workers, exquisite botanical works on paper, dream-like paintings and startling sculptures created in his Edinburgh studio.

What started out as research into the raw material of incense - made from charcoal, coconut shell, mud and husk - resulted in an exploration of the lives of the labourers, their ritual of handwork in their daily struggle for survival.

From the incense factories, Kilpatrick's attention focuses out on the lives of others in the new India, particularly the many artisans whose traditions and methods are coming under increasing threat from India's rapid technological advances.

Using henna, spices and rice paste as well as marble dust and Indian inks, Kilpatrick has incorporated many of the customary materials employed by artists and craftsmen. In referring to the language, materials and practices of artisan culture, he seeks to erase the caste divide between art (which depends on an established order to proclaim a distinctive identity) and craft (which, though creative, does not deviate from those practices instilled through inheritance rather than choice).

Alan Kilpatrick (b.1963) was born in Assam and has lived and worked from his studio in Edinburgh since 1991. He studied at St Martin's School of Art in London. In April 2007, he had a solo exhibition, Fruits of Labour, in Bangalore. He has exhibited widely in the UK, France and the USA and his work features in many private and public collections. This is his second exhibition at Art First.

Exhibition Title by kind permission of Little, Brown from In Spite of the Gods, The Strange Rise of Modern India, by Edward Luce.