The School of Art student gallery unveiled its latest solo exhibition on June 25 — Faith: Who Do You Trust? Featuring works by U of M student UV Chawla, this exhibition includes installations, paintings, sculptures and a live performance to explore the artist’s thoughts and struggles with identity, faith and trust.
Chawla is a second-year fine arts student who is interested in installation art, conceptual works and performance art. In an interview, he explained that he grew up religious but struggled with faith as he grew older and moved to Canada. This exhibition began with him questioning his beliefs.
“It started off with the question of can I trust religion? Can religion be trusted at all? And if I do trust religion, why do I trust it? That was a very simple idea that I wanted to just explore […] So from that, it became this huge question of trust in general, like, how do I trust anyone? Do I even trust myself? It became a huge question to me, and it just kept on growing and growing, and it became this entire exhibition,” he said.
At the same time, Chawla pointed out the fragility of trust and faith.
“Trust is so, so fragile, and it’s so delicate that it can break at any [moment]. So that was [the] simple idea of this exhibition, of how simple trust is to gain, but how simply it can be broken down.”
As a part of the exhibition’s opening ceremony, Chawla performed a piece that symbolized his internal conflicts about where he should place his faith. In the performance, he dressed in all black and prayed to four different religions.
“[In Islam] they do the prayer five times a day. I did that once […] In Christianity, I did Hail Mary and [Our] Father in Heaven. In Hinduism, I did Shiv Chalisa […] a very common prayer in Hinduism, as well as Sikhism, where I did the Japji Sahib,” said Chawla.
“Once all of those were done, in the end I slap my head on the altar, repeatedly screaming, asking for help, and literally just questioning […] ‘Are you even listening to my prayers now? Are you going to come on and help me?’ […] And for about three minutes, I do that, and then I stand up,” he said. “I actually fall on the ground, and it’s supposed to symbolize that I’m broken.”
Evidently, Chawla’s work is marked by turmoil, torment and uncertainty. When asked what he wanted viewers to take home with them after seeing his work, Chawla emphasized the importance of listening to your intuition and feelings.
“If you really read every single thing that’s in the exhibition […] it’s going to lead to trust[ing] your heart. That’s the main idea — [to] follow your heart, and that’s the only thing that’s always going to be there for you,” Chawla said.
“People say it’s a gut feeling and I’d say 100 per cent go with your gut feeling because that is where your heart is speaking to you. Just follow it.”
Faith: Who Do You Trust? is on display from June 25 to July 9 at the school of art student gallery (158 Taché 2). The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
