Vibha Galhotra

‘In Between Known and Unknown (2011), an elegantly crafted antique table with cabriole legs is the support for a small globe made of charred wood - a literal portrayal of a scorched earth. From the table’s underside hangs a cluster of ghungroos suggestive of a natural formation, an organic conglomeration that lies beneath this representation of an abused world.’

(A. M. Weaver, ‘Vibha Galhotra’, Art in America, 2 June 2012, https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/vibha-galhotra-61259/)

The allegorical and absorbing work of New Delhi-based contemporary artist Vibha Galhotra examines the effects of urbanization and globalization in the age of the Anthropocene. In her sculptures, Galhotra uses a range of organic, domestic and industrial materials, but her most famed medium is the humble ghungroo. Ghungroos – small bronze beads containing bells – are traditionally strung into anklets worn by classical Indian dancers, but in Galhotra’s works they are intricately sewn together into distinctly organic tapestries and installations. In recent years, the ghungroo has often been the principal material of Galhotra’s sculptures and shown in vast agglomerations. In Between Known and Unknown (2011), however, Galhotra’s ghungroos hang beneath an elegant, dark wood side table. The bulging mass of bells evokes a natural, living structure, comparable to the ghungroo beehives Galhotra has also produced. This hidden, swelling under-belly shown beneath a small, burnt globe, seems to speak to the unknown, or indeed, ignored devastation enacted by humanity on the natural environment.