BEN Kenning’s acquaintances had given him just one piece of advice about India’s most populated city, Mumbai: get out of there as soon as possible.
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Instead, the Tighes Hill artist’s decision to proceed with his residency in the city of 18.4 million has produced his most consistent body of work, Mazgaon Musings, which is Cooks Hill Galleries’ first exhibition of the year.
“I was having a crisis of practice in the year before I went to Mumbai, but when I was there I produced 23 works in five weeks, around having dengue fever and the flu,” Kenning said.
“A lot of my work has been quite heavy, but this has a lightness to it that is energising.”
Kenning travelled to India for two months in October last year, after pooling the money he received for winning Cooks Hill Galleries’ We Get By prize and a travelling scholarship awarded in his Bachelor of Fine Arts honour year.
He stayed in a small, stark studio in Space 118, Mazgaon, in southern Mumbai near the dockyards.
“I actually experienced culture shock, it was so confronting and challenging,” Kenning said.
“My senses were vastly overloaded. I felt entirely out of place and unfamiliar with the culture and environment. There was so much to process.
“But over time I got used to the rhythm and pace of the city, the day to day routines.
“After the first couple of weeks I adapted and became familiar with the community, the people, the shop-owners and got a sense of the place and started to feel really comfortable.
“I appreciated Indian people and how hard they work to live and survive.
“[It’s incredible to see] The conditions they live in, but the spirit they still have.”
Kenning said his art was usually based on his own imagination, but he felt a responsibility to share his Mumbai experience in his work, which is mostly acrylic on paper or canvas.
