What is out there has no name. A name cannot be given to what surrounds us. Yet, in the very core of our being is the drive to know it. To survive its incoherence, its disorder, its chaos…its beauty, its peace, its whispers and to make from its song a story – the story of a name.
This story does not need to be spoken. It is born from a point and gets lost in desolation. Yet when we inhabit silence we hear this story inhabiting the earth – galaxies in particles, fire trapped in ice, a great flood cradled but shards of rock, animals whimpering in love, a nomad’s forever walk, vapor as invisible as time. What moves through this story, possessing each form, shapeshifting with the wind, is nameless.
Yet our existence depends on our search for the name – our journey to not simply know its metaphysical truth but to give voice to it. We create in order to communicate with the spirit of what we are creating.
The work in this exhibition shows the evolution of a search. It points to the mystery and honors the unknown. Visualized through sculpture, painting, drawings, video, and sound, the gallery becomes a site of inquiry into our connection with the “nameless” that both inhabits us and surrounds us.
Rohan Khanna is an artist of Indian origin who grew up across SouthEast Asia and The Middle East. These early experiences spent engaging with ancient cultures, archeological sites, religious architecture, and changing landscapes inspired an art practice that investigates concepts of entropy, mysticism, decay, ruins, devotion, and mystery. He received a Presidential Scholarship to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated with a BFA in 2017.
