Apart from examining the co-existence of  multiple “realities” in our contemporary world, the exhibition “This is Unreal” also seeks to explore how those multiple realities are perceived by different people. It does so via a video installation, photographs, and a “kinetic sculpture” by Delhi-based artists Raqs Media Collective and Susanta Mandal, and New York-based Yamini Nayar.

Susanta Mandal, an artist with an exceptional feel for the intangible – he set up an intriguing “bubble” installation at Devi Art Foundation’s inaugural show “Still Moving Image” in 2008 – has constructed a kinetic sculpture that delves into the notion of “appearance” and “reality”. His untitled piece appears on one side of the screen as the shadow of a glass bowl of boiling water held over a bright, iridescent flame, like that of a Bunsen burner. On the other side of the screen, however, where the items are actually located, viewers realise that a pipe is pumping air into the bowl – hence the water bubbles – and the flame is nothing but light. It is a clever, tricky piece of work that succeeds because of its utter simplicity. What you see, quite clearly, is not what you get.

Raqs Media Collective explore notions of reality through two distinct works – a video installation titled “I Did Not Hear” and “Skirmish”, a series of photographs with Decoupe text. In the former, we see a solitary gunman at a target practice range disturbed by an unknown female voice speaking into his headphones – which, in this case, rather than working as a safety feature that keeps out noise, becomes the vehicle for interruption. The voice speaks of a vague, unknown event, that carries connotations of violence. Since we never get to know what the event is, the installation carries a profound sense of the sinister. The speaker questions persistently – “Where were you?”; “Tell me what happened”; and describes her actions “I was riding a cycle”; “I was waiting by the phone”; “I was naked”, all this interspersed by the sound of an airplane and gun shots.

The photographs work with interpretation on a larger scale – they are images of an unspecified “city wall” on which images of keys begin to appear. They mean something only to a single man, “He recognises them. They are the keys to her apartment.” In turn, he wants padlocks painted next to them, while the town, unable to decipher the secret code of their doomed love affair, simply think it means the locksmiths and keysmiths in town are doing roaring business. While the images in their old-style sepia tones are interesting, what truly grabs attention is the text which is filled with loss and longing – “all about him is a forest dead in mid-winter. Snow piled on snow and the memory of longing made bitter by the accumulation of absence.”

Yamini Nayar leaves her three large-scale photographs open to interpretation by offering no context, sense of scale or explanations for them. She builds un-peopled imaginary spaces that could be anywhere and for multiple purposes. “Speaking Room” for instance, shows a long, empty podium with a microphone, while around it are scattered various mundane objects – a rag, teacup and saucer. “Between the Lines” captures a ripped white sheet hanging like a spirit over a wooden frame, with a mysterious shapeless silhouette in the background. “Pursuit”, on the other hand, looks like an abstract painting which disorients the viewer with its shifting perspectives. The artist challenges the viewer on various levels – are constructed spaces “real”? does photography capture a “true” moment? does an image offer the truth or merely a part of it? Viewers at the show will take away more than just these questions though; they will be tricked, intrigued and alarmed.