Liminal Threshold - by Sumit Sarkar: Curated by Ruchi Sharma
Liminal Threshold brings together a body of work by Sumit Sarkar that explores moments of transition - the spaces between memory and imagination, comfort and unease, reality and dream. Through layered compositions and symbolic imagery, the artist reflects on how personal experiences, emotions, and cultural memories continue to shape our inner worlds.
At the centre of Sarkar’s practice are familiar domestic objects such as pillows, mattresses, folded fabrics, and stitched surfaces. These everyday forms become more than objects of comfort; they act as carriers of memory, emotion, and lived experience. The folds, creases, stains, and stitched marks that appear throughout the works suggest traces of presence, absence, healing, and emotional weight.
The exhibition also draws on mythology, with figures such as Hanuman, Narasimha, Ganesha, and other symbolic forms appearing within the compositions. These figures do not tell specific stories but emerge like fragments of memory, connecting personal experiences with larger cultural and collective histories.
A recurring idea throughout the exhibition is that of the threshold - a space between one state and another. Gates, pathways, folds, and layered surfaces appear as symbols of movement, change, and transformation. They suggest journeys between the outer world and the inner self, between what is remembered and what remains hidden.
Works such as Journey, Folds of Stories, Untitled Composition, and Beneath the Silence reflect on the ways memory and emotion are carried through everyday life. The paintings move between stillness and tension, familiarity and mystery, creating spaces where the domestic, the sacred, and the subconscious quietly come together.
Rather than offering clear narratives, Sarkar’s works leave room for reflection. They speak about the experiences we carry within us, the memories that remain embedded in objects and places, and the moments of transition that shape who we are. In Liminal Threshold, the threshold becomes a space of possibility - where different realities meet and new meanings begin to emerge.
-Ruchi Sharma
