Marian Goodman Gallery is delighted to present the first exhibition in our London space of the work of Indian artist Amar Kanwar. Born in 1964 in New Delhi where he lives and works, Kanwar has distinguished himself through documentary films and multi-media works which explore the politics of power, violence, sexuality, and justice. His multi-layered installations originate in narratives often drawn from zones of conflict and are characterized by a distinctly poetic approach to the social and political. Darkness and violence are recurring themes throughout all of Kanwar’s film essays. 

Originally presented at Documenta 14, Such A Morning, navigates transitions between juxtaposing states of minds, with each character seeking the truth through phantom visions from within the depths of the darkness. Shot in India, the film follows the mysterious disappearance of a famous mathematics professor. We watch the professor, at the peak of his career, sequester himself into physical darkness as he begins to slowly lose his eyesight. He retreats to an abandoned train carriage and turns it into a home, transforming it into a place of solitude, thought and metamorphosis. As he becomes acclimatized to the dark, the professor experiences a series of hallucinations and epiphanies about his life and his world that he documents as ‘Almanac of the Dark’. 

‘The film searches for a sensory, hallucinatory and metaphysical way to re-comprehend the difficult times we are living in…It seeks to navigate multiple transitions between mathematics and poetry, democracy and fascism, fear and freedom,’, Amar Kanwar (www.indianexpress.com) 

‘Such a Morning’ was produced with the support of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, AKF Productions, New Delhi, and Marian Goodman Gallery.