WELCOME2YOU at Salon De Normandy by The Community Paris

“WELCOME2YOU” BY NICK SETHI PRESENTED BY THE COMMUNITY at SALON DE NORMANDY by the Community 17TH–20th October 2019, NORMANDY HÔTEL Paris

This show was about traveling, connecting, and working together, and focused on process rather than an end result. The exhibition was staged in the meeting room of the hotel, an ultra-temporary space meant to be an incubator of ideas and relationships. And the works we chose to share focused on processes and materials that were able to be created while I was traveling leading up to the show, and adapt well to movement and temporary situations. The opening night only served as a starting point, with both the works and installation only being realized when the show closed.

The exhibition was followed 4 years later by the release of a catalog which is documented on this page and available for purchase here;
WELCOME2YOU
180pp, 8.5″x11″
self published, 2023

Text courtesy The Community;
An iteration of Sethi’s lifelong body of work, “welcome2you” is inspired by and focuses on India, the birthplace of his parents. The four-day exhibition was an ongoing installation pro- cess and studio setting, which featured photo archives, impromptu artist talks, and where works will be both displayed and realized during the course of the salon.

Sethi’s work is inspired by India’s ubiquitous hyper-decoration and attention to detail that highlights gestures of adornment, connection, and human touch as spiritual acts. The work is created in a seemingly haphazard yet highly resourceful nature, where the action takes precedence over a quest for perfection, and meaning and use are reexamined continuously. In the words of Sethi, “anything can be anything”.

In-process works found and created objects from Sethi’s vast personal collection, and reference and research are treated as one, collapsing hierarchies and blurring the lines between a presentation, an installation process, and a performance. Found packaging material and quilts are both shown as artworks and used as display materials, while original photographs made by Sethi are taped to the walls to reference the exhibition in which they live.

Paying little attention to the boundaries between process and result, producer and product, Sethi’s only constant is change and kinetic energy, suggesting that nothing is finite, and things are always open for reinterpretation. Energy is never created or destroyed, but only transferred, merged, and mutated, echoing sentiments of reincarnation.

Upon entering the Salon Argenteuil conference room, the space allotted to Sethi, the visitors were encouraged to ask, learn, collaborate, and engage with the work, the space, and the artist himself, thus even further emphasizing the exhibition’s title “welcome2you.”