India Art Fair 2023 and BMW India Commission Winner Studies The Power And Fragility Of The Human Body

“Boundless” is designed to transport us to a more ethereal space, where floating bodies dance in the starry night sky. The creation of Devika Sundar, the artwork is an ode to the vast and mysterious interconnectedness of humans with other beings, and non-beings, in the universe. It is a celebration of the possibilities of the human experience now and in the future.

Boundless is the winning proposal for “The Future is Born of Art,” a joint commission by India Art Fair and BMW India that sees artists work the theme “Forwardism” using the marque’s pinnacle X7 car literally as the canvas. The competition’s other trailblazing shortlisted artists in its second year include Aditi Aggarwal, Rithika Pandey and Sajid Wajid Shaikh, who all took to the topic with their own unique take.

The artists were selected by a jury representing some of the most influential voices in Indian art: India Art Fair director Jaya Asokan, Deepanjana Klein of Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, acclaimed artists Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra, collector and founder of MASH Shalini Passi.

The 2023 theme “Forwardism” is designed to encourage the participating artists to break boldly with convention, be themselves, and define the progressive values of tomorrow. “Our focus as a jury this year was to pick out artists truly charting their own paths and making the art of the future, with the aim of passing the baton on to this next generation of artists to design our collective tomorrow,” says Asokan.

The winner, Sundar, is a Bangalore-based visual and performance artist and co-founder of QueerAbad. She has fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome, which can cause chronic body pain. Working with mixed mediums — collage, painting, printmaking, and photography — she creates meditative pieces that explore the human body’s power and fragility.

“When I think about Forwardism, I imagine a future where art, science and fiction meet and blur boundaries; to stir experiences of wonder, inspire new possibilities of discovery and remind us of our shared humanity and collective interdependence,” explains Sundar over email.

She continues: “When we gaze at stars in the night sky or stare deep into the vastness of the ocean, we universally experience feelings of immensity, transcendence, and awe. Awe’s power lies in its ability to make us feel connected to something much larger than ourselves, through binding us to one another and contemplating our place and purpose against bodies and worlds that lie beyond us.”

For the X7 wrap, she wanted to explore the sensations of wonder, to illustrate a visionary “other-world filled with imagined, speculative, floating forms against a cosmic sky,” she says. “The microscopic textures, shape and imagery in each form, reference and are inspired from three vastly mysterious, unknowable, yet intertwined bodies: the human body, the cosmos and the ocean.”

Asokan says: “Devika Sundar masterfully taps into the deepest human emotions of pain, silence, and pleasure, seamlessly connecting us to the rhythms of the universe. Despite her struggles with fibromyalgia and myofascial pain syndrome, Devika channels her trauma and disability into a powerful force for healing and inspiration for others. I am truly mesmerized by her work.”

India Art Fair will be in New Delhi from February 9 to 12, 2023

On February 12, alongside Anahita Sarabhai and Nu of Revival Disability India, Devika Sundar will discuss the ableist nature of the art world at the India Art Fair 2023. In “Disability (with)in the Arts: Looking Inward,” the panel will look at the crucial need to shift perspective.

See the work of artist Nikita Gale for BMW Frieze, Almudena Romero at Paris Photo, Rolls-Royce Muse challenge, and Émeric Lhuisset at Paris Photo.