Neither freedom nor belonging is straightforward. One cannot exist entirely without risking the other. Naresh Kumar, who has lived a life of constant migration, understands this tension ?intimately. He was born in Sitamarhi, lived in Patna, Delhi, Paris, and has left and returned to Mumbai five times. This is not merely anecdotal — it is the foundation of his art. Each return to Bombay has been an attempt to reoccupy the city on new terms, alongside a shifting sense of self.
This personal journey unfolds within the larger framework of our inherited republic — with all its arrangements: nation, culture, family. The works nod to this weight but Kumar’s insistence lies elsewhere: that even within constraint, we retain a sliver of space to create ourselves. However narrow, however hard-won, this freedom matters. Act of Republic names this double condition — the two republics: the one we get, and the one we make.
Across the works, varying motifs unravel at their own pace, rewarding close attention. The body, rendered with restraint and care, reflects gestures tied to labour, habit, and endurance. This speaks to Kumar’s larger concern with how the body adapts to its world.
Kumar draws from what he inherits — including faint echoes of the Patna Kalam tradition — and makes it unmistakably his own. His materials are painstakingly gathered by moving familiarly through Mumbai’s urban texture and his native Bihar’s past. Indigo, Mica, Gamchas (thin cotton towels) are all connected to labour, trade, and daily life. But the most striking element is his use of old telephone directories. Once found in every home, now nearly forgotten, these fragile pages become a telling metaphor for a self shaped by memory and time. Rather than erase the past, Kumar draws directly onto these fading pages, layering his mark atop what came before, yet again.
Perhaps this is what ?Kumar's art tells us: ?If a balance between freedom and belonging exists, it is fragile at best. That there is no final, satisfying resolution. Only the ongoing work of making a republic of one’s own.
14.07.2025