Sooni Taraporevala: Home in the City, Bombay 1976 – Mumbai 2016 at the Whitworth
Polly Checkland Harding
This exhibition – the first UK solo exhibition of photographer, screenwriter and filmmaker Sooni Taraporevala – comes as part of a phenomenal new project: New North and South. A network of 11 arts organisations from across the North of England and South Asia have come together to produce a three year programme of co-commissions, exhibitions and intellectual exchange.
Home in the City kicks off the first 12 months in Manchester, and will be followed by a showcase of South Asian textiles alongside work of contemporary artists at the Whitworth in May, South Asian decorative art alongside work by contemporary makers in Manchester Art Gallery’s Design Gallery (also in May), a solo exhibition by Raqib Shaw at the Whitworth from June and a one-off performance by Nikhil Chopra at the Museum of Science and Industry in the autumn.
Home in the City itself presents 30 black and white photographs by Taraporevala, a Bombay-born acclaimed photographer and filmmaker who has spent over 40 years documenting life in her birth city, now called Mumbai. The exhibition has been guest-curated by Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi for Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, and is itself a snapshot of the social history of one of India’s most diverse cities – also one of the most populous in the world.
