Ascending Roots conceptualiser Rahul Kumar and Ojas art gallery curatorial director Anubhav Nath talk to Asmita Sarkar about bringing young artists together
There needs to be equal space for contemporary and indigenous artists and their artworks, believes Anubhav Nath, curatorial director of OJAS Art Gallery. And, it is with this thought that Rahul Kumar conceptualised the Ascending Roots art exhibition. “Roots go down, I’m trying to say that these artists are rooted and yet flying high,” said Kumar.
In an endeavour to celebrate both the art forms under one roof, young artists have been hand-picked from each of the categories of folk-contemporary and urban-contemporary. There is no common theme that binds the works. For Nath, it is about exploring the cross-pollination of thoughts and emotions, media and techniques, and style and imagery across the two categories. It is an invite for the spectators to ponder if the boundary lines separating the groups can be erased.
The art gallery has been awarding different indigenous art every year in collaboration with the Jaipur Lit Festival. The works are displayed at the festival in Jaipur and also overseas at Boulder, Colorado. Apart from that they explore a separate genre annually through the Satrangi annual exhibition.
“In contemporary folk art, artists have been pursuing their practices without being affected by the market forces. In the urban art space, there are artists who create work for the market,” said Nath. Asked if the traditional form was being lost in a bid to contemporise the folk arts, he said, “Art cannot grow or be segregated in a vacuum. It is evolutionary and will evolve based on its environment.”
The artists have not stuck to any one medium and instead the exhibition displays paintings, lithographs, sculptures, intaglio, drypoint, drawings, water colours, acrylic on canvas and oil on canvas by 10 artists like Ashish Kushwaha, Abhishek Verma, Deepak Kumar, Jignesh Panchal, Mahalaxmi, Mayur & Tushar Vayeda, Mayank Shyam, Shahanshah Mittal and Sher Singh Bheel. Viewers can perceive the depths of an artist’s work when they are freed from the limitations of a theme. The artists’ internal and individualistic vision resonate as they have worked on their most preferred subject for this exhibition.
“I consciously did not keep a theme to tie down the artists. The way to look at these two together is to see them as contemporary artists. The indigenous, tribal or folk artists are also individuals living in cities and use a traditional style whether it’s Warli, Bheel, Gond or Patachitra. Their concerns and issues are surprisingly, if you dive deeper into the works, similar like gender equality, sustainability, the effects of urbanisation on changing humanity, climate change and use of plastic. I’m leaving it to the audience to draw the parallels or just enjoy the two genres under one roof,” said Kumar, who called the artists “promising.” All of them have completed their formal education in the last five years.
Said Kumar, “More people are now engaging with contemporary art, there are websites that are selling them and artists have their own Facebook pages. The way people are able to reach out is phenomenal.” He added that more could be done commercially.
For the audience to spend on art, there needs to be an understanding that spending money on an original piece of art than a sofa is better. “There are a lot of people interested in acquiring art. Twenty years ago, there were fewer artists and buyers. Younger and upwardly mobile people are certainly interested in investing in art now,” he added. “To begin with, one buys art to show off and it’s a conversation starter. Sometimes, they don’t understand if the art has been put the right side up and still want it and sometimes they want to buy so that they can sell it at a profit, but art means different things to people and that’s okay,” he said. However, he would buy art that he would like to see everyday and wouldn’t want to sell it but to “each his own”, he concludes.
For the exhibition, Kumar depended on Nath’s expertise and engagement with the folk artists since his expertise lies in contemporary.
He shrugged away from being called a curator, for this show, since he only conceptualised it. “By definition, there needs to be more engagement with the artists when one curates. It’s not just about the choice of artist but also concept and theme. I want to say something as a curator but I am not the artist. I can only weave a set of artworks to tell you that story. I will work with the artist to ensure that what they make is aligned to the theme and then put the works in a particular order. A curator is like a jeweller who buys the beads and has a design in mind but won’t be making the beads. The makers are the artists but the one putting them together is the curator,” he said. He chastised those who call themselves curators for choosing artworks and putting them together. “Curating is not well understood in the country,” he said.
(The exhibition is at Ojas Art@1AQ, Near Qutab Minar, till September 30.)