ART IN INDIA
Welcome to the second issue of Art in India Co.’s digital newsletter!
This newsletter is intended for anyone keen on keeping up with the latest in India's cultural domain and will serve as a platform to bring forth discussions regarding the practice of visual arts in India. Art in India is a digital repository of the latest happenings in the arts from all over the country. We are dedicated to bringing you a curated selection of highlights from India's art community.
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NOTE FROM THE CURATOR-
Rooting this newsletter in the contemporary, one cannot avoid speaking about the global pandemic and the effect it has had on the art & culture professionals in our country. A total standstill in in-person gatherings was coupled with great financial burdens of surviving back-to-back lockdowns, mental and physical health struggles. The lack of support infrastructures has dealt a final blow to the already affected community. Acknowledging these concerns, one also thinks about the role of art in society, especially during trying times. What happens when something so crucial, holding a mirror to our existence, is pushed to the background as nonessential? I spoke to Ritesh Meshram to understand how for a creative artist, who thrives outdoors and gets his ideas on the move, the last year and a half has impacted his work. I also sat down for a conversation with Bhavna Kakar to understand the changes that cultural organizations have had to go through to accommodate the pandemic. Apart from the interviews, this issue shines a spotlight on a young artist, Bani Khurana, who was part of the Artists for Covid Relief 2021 fundraiser while the second wave was raging in the country, followed by some interesting recommendations for the month. Here’s hoping you enjoy browsing through this issue, curated with love, and above all a deep appreciation for the arts and artists in India. - Ankita Ghosh
RITESH MESHRAM
Ritesh Meshram is based in Mumbai, with roots in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. Having begun his career in painting, he has been an active theatre practitioner, & gradually shifted to working with sculptures. The artist works hands-on with small-scale industrial workers and attributes his creative process to the frequent trips he likes to take in and around Mumbai. In his latest exhibition ‘Reimagining the Object’ held at Chemould Prescott Road in July 2021, he is seen to be playing with the mundane everyday objects found at home. Here are some excerpts from the conversation with the artist.
THE SHIFT INDOORS
Mentally there was frustration, about not being able to get any work done, & also about not being able to move outside like before. I think the entire system was affected, there was so much that was no longer possible to do. Even today the uncertainty exists. We don't know when the next wave might strike. For me, there has been a huge change in the rhythm of work from before. The techniques have had to be changed.
Image Credits: Reimagining the Object/ Chemould Prescott Road
ON VIEWING ART
I feel art offers a sort of visual freedom to the audience to interpret works according to their preferences. There are several different layers and angles to connecting with an artwork. Each person watching the work interprets it in a different manner and feels a range of emotions with the work. All of us think about different things at a time and there isn’t one particular theme that should be put on as a label on a particular artwork.
THEATRE AND ART
I learned a lot through theatre. When I had started out in theatre, the craft-based theatre was not that popular. But we gave a lot of importance to craft, how to convey through symbols by using craft as a tool. We didn’t really look at dialogue being the main crux of a play but focused more on how to use the set to tell a story. Even today, I connect a lot with theatre and use a lot of the terms that have a strong root in theatre.
ON HIS LATEST EXHIBITION
A lot of these works were started way before the pandemic. These had been lying down at the forger's workshop. And when I went to find these pieces after such a long time, I was doubtful if these could even be used for the artworks that I had originally imagined. When such a long amount of time passes from when they were originally imagined, some of the ideas become redundant and new things come up. I had to also change things around. For 'Reimagining the Object', if you see, there is a copper piece on display, which was actually from a much earlier time. 'Nine', another piece, was earlier imagined as something else and half of it was done, but new layers were added to that as well.
CURRENT WORK
I’m working mainly with stainless steel, experimenting on some small-scale objects and some sculptures. Also planning a bit for art fairs, if things don’t worsen and they happen this year.
(Catch a glimpse of Ritesh Meshram's latest exhibition here: https://www.gallerychemould.com/exhibition s/102/installation_shots/)
BHAVNA KAKAR
Bhavna Kakar is the founder of Gallery Latitude 28, a contemporary art gallery based in New Delhi, and the editor-in-chief and publisher of Take On Art, a bi-annual periodical covering the art and culture of South Asia. Specializing in arts management, editing, curating, and writing, her work has always focused on challenging the pre-conceived notions of what constitutes art. Despite Gallery Latitude 28 ringing in its tenth year in 2020 and a series of art openings and curatorial events lined up to celebrate the milestone, she decided to not shift to a mode of virtual exhibitions during the pandemic. She explains her stance and her upcoming projects in the excerpts below.
COVID AND EXHIBITIONS
The pandemic really threw all of our plans off last year. But we were very conscious of not bombarding people with art shows during those really trying times. I took a stance, which I am sticking to even now. And while throughout those months we were working internally, we decided that any exhibition we do, we will only do it physically once the conditions were better. And the first show we had done when things started opening up was the exhibition by Waswo X Waswo in August 2020, which was quite interestingly titled ‘We Are Always Working’. And this had Waswo’s works from during the pandemic, and some other works as well. What was interesting about the show was, even though it was a physical show, we also wanted to keep everyone safe, and so instead of having people come for the opening at the gallery, we did a live zoom opening that was open for all. I and the artist, who came in from Udaipur, were present in the gallery and took everyone around the show. And on the zoom session, we wanted people to have the in-gallery experience of taking in the artworks. So it was open for everyone to speak, both to us and to each other throughout. This launch was hugely successful, it became the talk of the town and also inspired others to try out a similar manner of opening shows.
LEARNING FROM THE TIMES
Right now we are seeing everyone changing and upgrading their websites, which till last year was just a regular site. For me, however, an online exhibition just feels like a few images on a website. I believe there should be an online version of it, but art needs to be experienced. For an artist, the interaction with the audience is something that they would look forward to and that is something that they miss out on during an online show.
Another thing I noticed during this time was the astonishing kind of work done by a large number of artists and what is interesting is how artists have supported artists. Young artists, who couldn’t sell, with no exhibitions showing, really found so much support with organizations like Art Chain India and Open Call India. So I thought that was amazing – how the community has supported artists, sold via Instagram, via online forums, without any commercial interests. That had never happened before. This has brought the art community very close together.
CURRENTLY AT LATTITUDE 28
We have a lovely show right now –‘Traversing the Noosphere’ and we have a show opening at Museo Camera, and with Waswo opening a show on Gauri dancers, the performance artists from Rajasthan with whom he has shot, and there is a book also being launched on 17th September. We are part of Italy’s Artissima Art Fair, which is happening in November. We have a show coming up with Praful Das, George Martin, Dilip Sharma, and Farhad Hussain – this is a four-person show happening at the gallery from the 3rd of October. So now we have quite a few things planned out for the rest of the year. But, of course, we have to be cautious as well.
QURANTINE ISSUE OF TAKE ON ART
This is going to be a very interesting issue. We are covering how residencies took up online and the way they have been taking shape in virtual spaces. Mithu’s residency with Berkley, which happened online, was basically a studio residency that was performed online. We also got some coverage of shows that were online and what are the things that have changed during the pandemic for the exhibitions.But probably the most interesting aspect of it has to be the obituaries for all of the people that passed away during this time but we could not pay tribute to them – so we have obituaries by Geeta Kapur, Nancy Adajania, Ranjit Hoskote, etc. It is something to look forward to.
ARTIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Bani Khurana was a part of the Artists for Covid Relief 2021 initiative organized by young artists in India to raise funds at the peak of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Bani's journey with painting began 2 years ago, as a part of her healing process. But soon enough, it became more than just a creative outlet. Since then, she has poured her emotions onto the canvas to paint portraits - in an attempt to reveal the spirit and the essence behind each character.
A running theme in Bani's paintings involves uncovering the truth behind the expression of rage. Because rage does not always reveal itself in the form of anger, destruction, or retrogression. It ceremonially disguises itself in silence, paranoia, and isolation like a snake on white marble. Displayed here is one of Bani's paintings titled 'Enzo Circle'.
ENZO CIRCLE (Size: 2 X 2 ft)
In Zen, ensō is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The painting is hand-made using quality acrylic paints. It is produced on a standard-grade canvas board. The painting may appear slightly different in person vs on-screen owing to factors such as lighting, display resolution, and screen- pixels.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING
Interested in discussions that center around visual images and the aesthetics, politics, and infrastructure of images? Artalaap is a podcast started by art critic Kamayani Sharma to discuss topics that revolve around visual culture in the South-Asian subcontinent. Each episode sees Kamayani sit down with artists, art curators, writers, researchers, and culture professionals to discuss a particular theme. Catch the latest episode 'Char/Coal Country, where she sits down for a conversation with Prabhakar Pachpute to talk about his artistry.
RECOMMENDED READING
Post-pandemic Museum: An Immersive yet Uncharted Territory?
By Anjana Premchand, Marg Magazine
"If you stand at a position close to the entrance, the boundary between the wall and the floor disappears, the real space dissolves, and the lines drawn by the trails of the fish appear to be drawn in three dimensions in the space...The shoal of fish illuminated by the light moves freely...People are also assigned a color, and when a fish passes by a person, it takes on that color.".
Tracing the Trajectory of Illustrations in Tamil Periodicals
By Hemavathy Guha, Serendipityarts.org
Great authors and poets have always played with various figures of speech, simile, and metaphors to help the readers visualize a scene. But what are the challenges when one is writing about issues of national importance at the time of struggle for independence from the colonial empire? And when one needs to appeal to the public at large? In helping convey ideas to people easily, visuals come to the aid of writers and editors.
We are living under the weight of countless corpses.
By Rohitha Naraharisetty, Akademi Mag
In this theatre of grief, bodies writhe and flail, appearing more alive in their last moments than we, the living, seem now. A final tumult behind the ribs, a churn and collapse of organs, the crescendo of medical machinery announcing their surrender, the last gasp more insistent and desperate for life than any, every atom of the body holding the fort for survival before stopping.
EXHIBITION RADAR
With new coronavirus variants of concern emerging and the threat of a third wave looming over the horizon, it still isn't 100% safe to traverse the outside. To keep up with the latest exhibitions across the country, check out In Touch. An online digital exhibitions platform created in collaboration between galleries, In Touch displays, curated exhibitions via online viewing rooms. Its unique nature allows for a diverse range of programs and artists while allowing ease of access to anyone with an internet connection. For an art enthusiast, In Touch provides the perfect platform to catch up on the latest exhibitions in more than one city through their virtual viewing rooms. The 6th edition of In Touch is currently live on their website, with participating galleries including Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, Chemould Prescott Road, Bombay, Experimenter, Kolkata, Galerie Mirchandani + Steinrucke, Mumbai, Gallery Espace, Delhi, Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, Dubai, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore/Delhi, Nature Morte, Delhi, Shrine Empire, Delhi, Tradition and Beyond, Delhi, Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi.
NEWS
Once Upon A Time In Calcutta', by Aditya Vikram Sengupta has been selected as part of the 'Orizzonti' film segment that will see the Indian film being screened at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, alongside some of the best international films. The movie stars Sreelekha Mitra, Anirban Chakrabarti, and Bratya Basu among others.
Prabhakar Pachpute, a leading contemporary artist based in Pune, Maharastra, has been awarded the Derek Williams Trust Artes Mundi Purchase Prize for 2021. Pachpute, having grown up in a coal-mining region in central India, draws heavily from those landscapes and the workers in the coal mines. His works Rattling Knot (2020) and The Close Observer (2020) were selected for the esteemed award.
WRITING ABOUT ART ~ WORKSHOP
We share a poster here for BICAR's upcoming workshop on Writing about Art that might be of interest to the @artinindia community! It's a workshop designed specifically for artists, curators, and critics who might be working on applications, statements, concept notes, reviews, wall text, and more.
That's all for this month! If there are any suggestions, feel free to contact us at artinindiaco@gmail.com