Histories Unbound: Curating Dialogues Across Time
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Arts University Plymouth, United Kingdom
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The German pioneer of "Absolute Film," Hans Richter (1888–1976), wrote of Rhythmus 21: "A vertical line was made meaningful by the horizontal, a strong line grew stronger by a weak one, a defined one was clear against an undefined one, and so forth. All of these discoveries became meaningful in light of our belief that a precise polar interrelationship of opposites was the key to an order [a], and once we understood this order we knew we could control this new freedom." The idea [a] is analysed by the curators to neutrally document the artists' interpretations while providing viewers with a precise space in which to choose their own alignment.
The exhibition, Histories Unbound: Dialogues Across Time, critically engages with Antonio Gramsci's diagnosis that "the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born. In this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appears." The exhibition approaches this condition not merely as a political observation but as a broader cultural and psychological framework through which contemporary societies negotiate the tensions between historical narratives and traditions. Drawing upon the intellectual legacy of New Objectivity and the debates surrounding Ingrismus and Verismus, the exhibition explores the persistent oppositions between antiquity and the machine, history and futurity, figuration and abstraction, asking how inherited narratives continue to shape contemporary forms of seeing. The foundations of a specific narration are built upon dominant notions, beliefs, and interpretations of fact. The curators, therefore, focus on the spatial arrangement of the artists' works.
[1] Well, Hello Mr. Mendez, Venus of Suburbia – My Life is a Masterpiece, Jenny Petite [Centre]
To address the structural problem of neutrally accommodating four types of interpretation by the four exhibiting artists, the curators refer to the equation proposed by the De Stijl movement: elementarization and integration. Elementarization is the analysis of each practice into discrete components and the reduction of those components to a few irreducible elements. Integration is the exhaustive articulation of those elements into a syntactically indivisible, non-hierarchical whole—no element is more important than another, and none escapes integration. This formula responds to the ontological question, "What is art?", by treating the arrangement of works, together with the spaces between them, as the artwork itself. The artworks are no longer merely forms but rather devices, while the four gallery walls, each dedicated to one artist, integrate as four panels—a quadriptych. The intra-connected devices, in the form of series within each panel, together with the spaces between them, then sublimate into the artist's perspective. Consequently, the relationship between the positions of these panels assumes the form of a discourse among interpretations of historical referents. The viewer now experiences the artwork from within and is inside the discourse. One no longer sees the devices or the spaces; rather, one perceives the relationship.
Histories Unbound: Dialogues Across Time presents selective interpretive devices—photographic works by Jenny Petite, soft pastel works by Barbara Rachko, acrylic paintings by Rajul Shah, and charcoal drawings on frosted mylar by Susan Fraser-Hughes—yet they appear as portals into different temporal frameworks. Upon entering the gallery, the visitor is greeted by Jenny Petite's Well, Hello Mr. Mendez (from the series Venus of Suburbia – My Life is a Masterpiece) [1]. This gesture of welcome immediately positions the visitor within an institutional framework, prompting the question, "Who is the author of historical interpretations?" In doing so, authorship is recentred upon the viewer, who is invited to reinterpret historical referents.
[2] She was an American Girl, 2020, by Jenny Petite.
Petite simultaneously destabilizes the historical referent itself, shifting attention away from the original image toward the processes through which historical meaning is continually reconstructed. Representation consequently ceases to imitate reality; instead, it precedes and actively constructs reality itself. Indeed, nothing could offer greater relevance than Petite's She Was an American Girl [2]: an axial split of forms within the same gender—traditional versus new woman. Captured from outside her house, she performs two polar opposite roles that a woman plays. Petite, dressed in red, represents the traditional woman who once went out for recreational activities holding her husband's arm. Petite, dressed in black, is the "new woman" who becomes her own "husband" by going out to work. The "husband" holds a hammer in the right hand, positioned at the centre of the composition and directed toward the feminine genitalia, representing the absolute destruction of the divine feminine. She meticulously documents neutral expressions, connecting the historical referent with the contemporary one while demonstrating that the two opposing poles of pronominal space do not directly translate into internal euphoria. This iconic representation is further marked by the fact that Petite has a twin sister, thereby reproducing the referent itself through “the act of doubling”. In this way, the viewer is placed at a precise vantage point from which to analyse narratives surrounding the "concept of the new woman" as a function of real-world events and the subjectivity of the human psyche.
[3] Harbinger, Bolivianos Series, Barbara Rachko [Centre panel]
While Petite's work establishes the authority to reinterpret historical referents, Barbara Rachko's Harbinger (from the Bolivianos series) [3] neutralizes this authorship. This soft pastel on sandpaper is an intuitive representation of Máscara de Cóndor (the historical referent—the Bolivian mask). An Andean animal inhabiting the Alax Pacha, or sky, it appears in pairs before the other dancers, announcing the arrival of the Diablada to the audience.
Through this work, Rachko alerts viewers by announcing the consequences of occupying an institutional position. Given Gramsci's observation that "...the new cannot be born...," Harbinger substantiates the first half of his diagnosis: without the old... Thus, Rachko neither accepts nor rejects the rationalism of authorship. She neither repudiates nor embraces the controlled interpretation of history. With Harbinger, she merely announces. However, by positioning this work at a carefully measured distance from Petite's panel and in closer proximity to Fraser-Hughes' panel, Harbinger subtly redirects interpretation toward a neutral understanding of history.
[4] An Intimate Conversation Series, Susan Fraser-Hughes
A sublimated perspective emerges through Susan Fraser-Hughes' four-piece series, An Intimate Conversation [4]. Executed in charcoal, this figurative series presents four points of view, becoming a two-dimensional documentation of a historical object—a corset mannequin reflecting sunlight entering the artist's studio. Rendered in black and white, the works position the viewer at a vantage point from which to "have an intimate conversation" directly with the object in light of Gramsci's observation that "in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appears." Simultaneously, viewers recognize its direct confrontation with Petite's argument, as Fraser-Hughes' panel is positioned directly opposite Petite's. Through this series, Fraser-Hughes not only decenters authorship but also responds to the epistemological question—"How do we accept, reject, interpret, or reinterpret history?"—by embracing it.
[5] Rajul Shah's works
In contrast to the preceding panels stands the panel devoted to Rajul Shah's work [5]. These abstract paintings exist together as though sharing a common bond, merging their backgrounds with geometric rectangular forms. Within the broader history of art, Art Informel represents a comparatively recent development rooted in Jung's theory of the collective unconscious. Rajul's works are therefore presented collectively to witness and preserve the innocence of abstraction.
The exhibition consequently positions the human subject as both witness to history and participant in its ongoing transformation, simultaneously occupying the roles of victor, victim, inheritor, and creator. Within this larger artwork, viewers engage with the complex dynamics emerging between remembrance and reinvention, continuity and rupture, inheritance and agency. As they navigate these layered dialogues across time, they are invited to consider whether the future can ever truly liberate itself from the weight of history or whether history itself remains perpetually unfinished, awaiting reinterpretation by each successive generation.
Histories Unbound: Dialogues across Time
Opening event – 6 – 8 PM, 18th June 2026
Artists exhibited – Jenny Petite (USA), Susan Fraser-Hughes (Canada), Barbara Rachko (USA), Rajul Shah (USA – Singapore)
Curation by Susan Fraser-Hughes, Rajul Shah and Siddhant Khattri
Location – Vedica Art Studios and Gallery, Mumbai, India
Contact Gallery
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Sale inquiry:
Siddhant Khattri, Partner
Pete Malmberg, Director
website: https://www.vedicaartgallery.com