The quiet beneath the rubble

How much farther before I can leave this place behind? Pratik Khurkutiya traces the lingering terrain of fear, embedded in the body long after escape.

Artist

Pratik Khurkutiya (MSU, Baroda)

Medium

Acrylic on Canvas, Mixed Media on Canvas, Letterpress Ink on Canvas, Collograph Print, Fevicol and ink on OHP sheet, Ink on paper, Etching (aquatint), scrap metal and copper wires on wooden boards

Venue

Vallabhdas Kanji Limited (VKL) Warehouse, Mattancherry, Fort Kochi, Kerala

Timings

10AM to 6PM (Mon to Sunday)

Till March 31st, 2026

About

The quiet beneath the rubble expands internal imagery into physical space. Painted and printed lines slip past usual boundaries, taking sculptural form. Wire structures emerge from nights spent in a government hostel—weak staircases, cracked plaster, an ever-shifting building producing constant bodily vigilance.

Each ascent carried intrusive questions: what if the rubble falls? What if the stairs give way? These impressions settled into memory before returning as images suspended between enclosure and exposure.

The resulting forms evoke claustrophobia—inhabiting spaces one step from collapse. Moving away from flat representation becomes quiet refusal, letting experience escape the limits of what can be pictured.

Kochi Biennale 2025