Many traditions across South Asia extol the virtues of setting off from home in search of eternal truths. Those who do so are known as ascetics, people who have stepped away from their worldly responsibilities in order to engage in intense spiritual discipline. But there is an equally robust tradition of celebrating the householder as someone who fulfills his or her obligations to family and community. These traditions are not necessarily in opposition: the householder and the ascetic reveal a delicate balance between worldly engagement and renunciation.
Inspired by Amar Kanwar’s Such a Morning (2017), on view in Gallery 370, the works on display here invite us to question the reality of simple binaries: good and evil, order and chaos, home and away. A series of letters produced by Kanwar further explores the potential of paradox, inviting us to pause and reflect on what has meaning in our own lives.