ASTHA BUTAIL

stha Butail’s “In the Absence of Writing” included a subtle and challenging body of work. Presented by the Gujral Foundation at their experimental space 24, Jor Bagh in New Delhi, the exhibition comprised installations commissioned specially for the occasion alongside existing projects, all resulting from Butail’s yearlong exploration of oral traditions, particularly the Zoroastrian Avesta in Iran, Jewish oral Torah in Israel, and (2017–18), displayed in the show, consists primarily of recordings captured of their recitations, with one channel projected on an entire wall of the gallery space, and a second shown on a screen encased by a wooden cabinet, mounted within the frame of the larger image. Notably, the two videos were presented without sound. In the resulting visual synecdoche, a common thread—both ephemeral and mystical—emerges between the different traditions, drawing on the physical and ritualistic practices that accompany them. Through silence, Butail also captures something of her subjects’ essence, without committing them to legible signs, rendering them present while maintaining the fundamental mutable qualities of their practices. Each tradition—rich though it may be—is contained and kept for posterity within a fragile edifice of customs and social structures. The sense that these frameworks, though undeniably extant, can easily be collapsed into nothing, was underscored by the display of the three tents that Butail had used—the iteration she took to Iran sat in the center of one room, while the other two were placed dismantled in its corners.