Zero bana hero

Two young artists go round the circle and emerge with oddball art. We catch them on the dot

Bindu Re Bindu wasn't just the song on the lips of Kishore Kumar when he was singing for Padosan, but one that everyone was humming when Aryabhata devised the zero, when colonisation divided the earth into 'spheres' of influence, and when Google chose to name itself after googol, the largest number with a one followed by 100 zeros. Whether in decimals, doodles, compact disks or degree signs, it is the circular form that makes our world go roundu00a0both literally and otherwise. So, it isn't surprising when two young palette players decide to turn it their muse for different shows around town. We jump into the ring.

Mixed pi(e)

While Delhi's Mekhala Bahl expresses her part-mathematical quirks on quilts, US-based Siri Khandavilli uses video works to depict her interpretation of the big O. "I've scanned my own body to make a part look like the genitalia. It is to challenge the male gaze by using the self as an object of art, instead of playing a man's innocent muse," Siri tells us. The drawings illustrate everyday objects, people and mundane sceneries as microscopic objects, armed with duality and unity, contradiction and agreement.

Mekhala, on the other hand, uses the motif as a bulbous, cartoon-like companion to her canvasses, employing humorous anecdotes, memories and dreams that'd urge you to find your own. "The circle is like an entry point," she explains.

Expect abstractions, childlike colouring and unsteady strokes as you pay a visit to their well-achieved 'gols'.


Mekhala Bahl's The Geometry of Error

Where: Gallery Espace, 16, Community Centre, New Friends Colony
From: January 21 to February 28


Siri Khandavilli's Two Birds

Where: Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Centre
From: January 28 to February 4