Through a series of exhibition walkthroughs at AAA’s library in Hong Kong, Noopur Desai, Pallavi Arora, and Samira Bose from Asia Art Archive in India introduce their work on the personal archive of the late artist Mrinalini Mukherjee, and the key ideas behind “mould the wing to match the photograph.” With their own experiences of the archival materials as starting points, they share stories from the digitisation process, and how it disrupted and altered their perceptions of the artist’s practice.  

A series of exhibition tours will also be led by AAA in Hong Kong’s Curatorial team in Cantonese and English from December 2023 to February 2024.

“mould the wing to match the photograph” draws on the archive of Mrinalini Mukherjee, one of the most prominent sculptors in India, known for her experimentation with form and materiality over her forty-year practice. It stages an encounter between Pari (1986), the artist’s monumental hemp fibre sculpture, and archival materials with detailed installation instructions and extensive photographic documentation of Pari and similar works. The archival materials complicate the sculpture’s sense of organicity and intuitiveness, and demonstrate a desire for precision and control. The exhibition emphasises how the archive actively reconfigures the understanding and experience of Mukherjee’s work.

Free and open to the public with registration. Please click here to register.

Exhibition tour schedule

Wed, 20 Sep 2023, 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English) 
Thu, 21 Sep 2023, 12:30–1:30pm (English) & 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English)
Fri, 22 Sep 2023, 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English) 
Tue, 19 Dec 2023, 12:30–1:30pm (Cantonese) & 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English) 
Tue, 23 Jan 2024, 12:30–1:30pm (Cantonese) & 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English) 
Tue, 20 Feb 2024, 12:30–1:30pm (Cantonese) & 6:30–7:30pm HKT (English) 

Image: Installation view of “…and it is something which grows in all directions” at Project_Space, The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art, New Delhi, 2022. Photo: Pritish Bali.

“mould the wing to match the photograph”: The Mrinalini Mukherjee Archive is curated by Noopur Desai, Pallavi Arora, and Samira Bose of Asia Art Archive in India, who worked closely over several months across their respective departments of Research, Collections, and Curatorial. The exhibition will be on view in Hong Kong from 20 September 2023 to 29 February 2024.

“mould the wing to match the photograph” is generously supported by Mimi Brown & Alp Erçil, and Virginia & Wellington Yee. The Mrinalini Mukherjee Archive was made possible with the support of the Mrinalini Mukherjee Foundation. We would like to extend our gratitude to the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, for loaning us Pari (1986) for this exhibition.