Serpentine Galleries Unveils Exhibition Honoring 60-Year Journey of Artist Arpita Singh and Her Distinctive Artistic Perspective
Title: Arpita Singh: Remembering – A Tribute to Memory, Myth, and Mastery
As Indian artist Arpita Singh nears her 88th birthday this year, the Serpentine Gallery in London celebrates her extensive career with a groundbreaking exhibition entitled Arpita Singh: Remembering. Open until July 27, 2025, this marks Singh’s first solo institutional showcase outside India, offering a sweeping overview of her six-decade exploration of art, memory, and narrative.
The exhibition features 165 works and serves as a deep reflection on time, memory, and space. From vivid paintings to intricate ink sketches and expressive etchings, Singh’s vast body of work is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally impactful. Her artistry traverses personal memories and shared histories, presenting itself as both a document and a woven fabric.
A Fabric of Memory and Medium
Singh’s defining characteristic is her knack for intertwining intimate stories within larger cultural and historical frameworks. The exhibition’s title, Remembering, aptly reflects that memory is not just a motif but the very essence of her artistic endeavor. Showcasing a versatile mastery of various mediums—from acrylics and watercolors to pen and ink—the exhibition emphasizes the artist’s ongoing engagement with feminine perspectives, Indian mythology, folk traditions, and contemporary socio-political matters.
Her creations fluctuate between representation and abstraction, blending aspects of surrealism with the details characteristic of Indian miniature art. Her visual lexicon immerses viewers in layered compositions where reality, fantasy, and memory converge.
Reclaiming Iconography: “Devi Pistol Wali” (1990)
A highlight of the exhibition is Devi Pistol Wali (1990), a bold reinterpretation of the Hindu goddess Devi. Adorned with multiple arms and clothed in a sari, the figure stands over a man, her pistol raised purposefully. This dynamic challenges conventional roles—goddess as fighter, woman as defender—while enveloping the onlooker in rich symbolism: flowers symbolizing fertility, the sari representing modesty, and the pistol denoting defiance.
In this piece, Singh does not merely replicate Indian mythology; she reclaims it. “Devi Pistol Wali” overturns dominant narratives and comments on women’s navigation through public and private realms. The floral border, echoing Mughal miniatures, roots the work in Indian art history even as its subject challenges traditional iconography.
Mapping Memory: “My Lollipop City: Gemini Rising” (2005)
Another significant artwork featured is My Lollipop City: Gemini Rising, a 2005 painting that operates as both a cartographic dream and psychological landscape. A couple, intertwined, looks out over a bustling city scene—a vibrant mix of monuments, people, vehicles, and celestial markers. While loosely alluding to New Delhi with structures like the Red Fort and Jantar Mantar, the piece embodies a dreamlike geography, where memory resists strict accuracy.
Aircraft buzz in the sky above, and a bull labeled “Taurus” implies astrological and mythic themes. Singh encourages viewers to contemplate how place shapes memory and how memory reshapes place. The outcome is a painted palimpsest where time and space blend into an extraordinary internal realm.
Memory as an Artistic Endeavor
In a 2024 discussion with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Singh noted, “I believe everyone has an [infinite store of memory] and I enjoy unlocking it and revealing things.” This belief is integral to her methodology and artistic vision. Her works are not simple reflections of memory; they are reinterpretations, remixes that examine how the past continually molds our present.
Her 2022 creation, The Tamarind Tree, along with pieces like A Feminine Tale (1995), Buy Two, Get Two Free (2007), and Lesser Myth (2006) further this narrative. Each showcases signs of evolution—folk motifs fused with modern symbols, nature depicted with psychological depth, and objecthood enriched with meaning.
Themes of domesticity, urban growth, violence, femininity, and mythology are consistently revisited in Singh’s oeuvre. They appear like echoes in a poem that is perpetually rewritten. Consequently, these artworks not only “remember” but also reimagine what has been preserved in memory.
A Landmark in Global Acknowledgment
Arpita Singh: Remembering transcends being a mere retrospective; it is a reclamation of space for an artist whose voice merits international recognition. Until now, Singh’s acclaim has predominantly thrived within Indian and South Asian contexts. The Serpentine exhibition signifies a pivotal moment, placing her within a wider global discussion on modern and contemporary art.
The exhibition highlights the cross-cultural significance of Singh’s themes—especially her focus on women’s experiences, societal turmoil, and cultural remembrance.