Untitled (Rano) by Tsohil Bhatia
An installation for NADA House
September 3 – October 27, 2024
Public Hours: Friday – Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm

For the sixth edition of NADA House, CUE Art presents Untitled (Rano), a work by Tsohil Bhatia. The work serves as an extension of This Fire That Warms You, their solo exhibition simultaneously on view at CUE’s gallery space—and for which they received mentorship from Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo). Bhatia’s practice intertwines the studio and the kitchen, and often incorporates extensive work with their own body, exploring its ghost, its labor, and its evidence. They frequently revisit and reevaluate contemporary iterations of everyday rituals and from their household, situating their practice at the intersection of cold conceptualism and warm romanticism. 

Untitled (Rano) is presented on the lawn of Nolan Park House 17 on Governors Island, extending the language of the domestic into the public realm. 146 pounds of kneaded dough is placed upon a charpai (daybed), reflecting the weight of the artist’s body. This act is a reverent reperformance of Rano, a family elder. As a memorial to her departed presence, the work considers the fleeting and the unresolvable. Left to ferment in the elements and to be fed on by the creatures of the island, Untitled (Rano) contemplates the artist’s decaying body, mourning the inevitable loss of time and its bodily manifestations. Part way through its presentation at NADA House, the work will be accompanied by a food-based offering from Red Flower Collective, a communal eating and food research collective of which Bhatia is a co-founder.

Read more about the artist below, and see a full list of participants in NADA House here.

To learn more about Tsohil Bhatia’s solo exhibition at CUE, see here.

About the Artist
Tsohil Bhatia (b. New Delhi, India) is an artist, homemaker, and educator currently based in Lenapehoking, now known as New York City. They received an MFA at the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University (2020), and their practice thinks through sculpture, performance, and the kitchen. Bhatia’s work emerges from contemplations about the latencies of mundane objects, rituals, and images—bringing together the complexities of the everyday, and of the body’s relationship with time and the space it inhabits. In some of their recent work, they have counted their breath, measured a day’s worth of water from a leaky faucet, mapped light from a window, collected and evaporated water from the five oceans, intuitively counted the seconds of a clock, and swum towards a setting sun. They are a co-founder of Red Flower Collective, a communal eating and food research collective that hosts free and affordable multicourse meals in NYC. Bhatia has been awarded residencies at Fire Island Artist Residency (2024), Center for Book Arts (2022), Oxbow Summer Residency (2021), Chautauqua Artist Residency (2021), 1 Shanthi Road Residency, and HH Art Space (India). Their work has been shown at the University of British Columbia, Twelve Gates Arts, Queer Arts Festival, Franconia Sculpture Park, Hair+Nails, and the Warhol Museum. They are represented by Blueprint12 Gallery (India).

Project Information:

NADA House 2024:
Friday, September 3 – Sunday, October 27, 2023
Nolan Park House 17, Governors Island
Open Tuesday, September 3rd–Thursday, September 5th, 11 am–5 pm
Fridays, Saturday, and Sundays, 11 am–5 pm

Opening Reception:
Friday, September 6, 2023
2:00 – 5:00 pm

VIP Walkthrough (invitation only):
Friday, September 3, 2024
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm

For more information about how to get to Governors Island, see here.

Tsohil Bhatia Inquiries
To inquire about pricing or purchase works by Tsohil Bhatia presented at NADA House or at CUE’s gallery space, please contact info@cueartfoundation.org.

About CUE Art
CUE Art is a nonprofit organization that works with and for emerging and underrecognized artists and art workers to create new opportunities and present varied perspectives in the arts. Through our gallery space and public programs, we foster the development of thought-provoking exhibitions and events, create avenues for mentorship, cultivate relationships amongst peers and the public, and facilitate the exchange of ideas.