London show spotlights the art of South Asia

LONDON -- A six-foot-long tapering speaker opens into a 60-centimeter mouth, its narrow end containing a hidden Bluetooth speaker through which the word "listen" is played in a continuously repeating sequence of 50 languages. This installation by Nepal-based visual artist Amrit Karki is called "Whisper," and it is the artist's voice that speaks to the audience, the dizzying variety of languages creating a sense of mystery instead of the comprehension that the urgency of the delivery seems to demand.

Nearby, Aban Raza, a Delhi-based artist, showcases two paintings from a series on a 2020-21 protest by Indian farmers seeking dignity in the face of bad weather and the COVID-19 pandemic, and Sri Lankan artist Rinoshan Susiman shows a deeply personal work tracing his teenage years and the spaces he once considered safe. Creating this piece was an attempt to reconnect with those formative years, revisiting memories, places and the emotions tied to them, and trying to translate that sense of dislocation and rediscovery.