The 10th edition of the India Art Fair revels in tradition and modernity, says Kritika Dua
Shilpa Gupta’s interactive video projection Shadow 3, the work which was created decades ago, resonates in a contemporary context and demands a clamour to bring change. It depicts the overtaking of industrial waste that is clogging the earth shown through a shadow which ultimately chokes under the artificially created artistic waste.
The artist’s vision was to bridge the gap between art and the audience which they have achieved as the video projection was first shown in a tent on the street as well as in the gallery space. She and her team truly are making art accessible to masses and consequently India Art Fair became their pitstop. “The fair is about inspiring visitors to discover the best of the local and regional art scene,” says fair director Jagdip Jagpal. With around 78 galleries from across the globe under the art umbrella, it is indeed a perfect place to discover where contemporary art is heading to. The fair comprises artworks from South Asia but our looking glass was India. Over the course of three days, there will be rare works on display, talks, live events, walks and a special children’s zone.
There were tabs and headphones through which the audience could enter the monochromatic world. “Shadow 3 was created in 2007, when one enters her world there are things with no real reference falling on the shadow until it is completely submerged by the burden,” asserts Najrin Islam, Programme Officer, Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA).
No Man is an Island created using plate lithography prints comprising eights drawings by artists — Arpita Singh, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Mithu Sen, Sudhir Patwardhan, Jitish Kallat, Shilpa Gupta, Anita Dube and Atul Dodiya. The unique element behind the 15 by 12 inches drawings is the process — visual relay, chain of ideas — conceptualised by Gupta.
The exchange of art began with Singh who drew the initial sketch which was passed on to Sheikh, who spent time with it, responded to her drawing in his prerogative. He gave form to his interpretation through a sketch of a winged man. When it went in the hands of Sen, it took the shape of a jaw and the process continued till it went through all the eight artists. The words of the last drawing echo in my head still, ‘Thoughts from your head don’t let me sleep’ which was inspired from a skull with a thought cloud. The artists have a long association with FICA and their artworks are compiled into a portfolio out for sale. Islam informs us that there are no words etched on the wall and are absent in print. So that the audience can freely interpret the portfolio.
Away from the contemporary world, was the mythical canvas of Anant Mishra. The artist is rooted in traditional beliefs but is nowhere restricted by it as his gaze traverses to perils of innovations witnessed through his Avatar series. His orange-hued work also brought to focus the destruction of civilisation and humans by the hands of bombing. Amidst the chaos of explosion, there is the god, which according to Mishra can be the saviour. “The atmosphere of tension caused by explosives is not restricted to one country as it can be observed in many. I am praying to almighty (narsingh avatar) through my painting to come and save humanity.” His work is presented by the Floodlight foundation.
late artist Hema Upadhyay, supported by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, was born again with the reinstallation of her work on slum to the fair. The realistic art installation of the Dharavi slum area in Mumbai brought to life the space crunch caused by the terrible condition people live in and toxic air they breathe due to the heap of garbage.
She sometimes purely observes the massive sprawl and at times inserts herself into this scape. This installation invites viewers to literally enter into an 8 by 12 feet marked interior space, which is the size of an average house in the slum. The three adjoining walls and the ceiling present an aerial view of the slum, with maquettes of tin houses created from aluminum sheets, car scraps, enamel paint, tarpaulins, pieces of metal and found objects. One can marvel at all the meticulous details: temples and mosques, few high-rise towers amid a swarm of small dwellings, a wired meshwork of street lamps and TV antennas.
In the vicinity was the Emami art gallery proudly depicting works from the city of joy — Jamini Roy, Jogen Chowdhury, Jayashree Chakravarty, Chittrovanu Mazumdar and Anwar Chitrakar.
The inclusion of Roy’s Crucifixion is an important marker, representing traditional as well as painterly departures that have shaped modernist practices in the region. Displayed alongside a suite of delightful contemporary pat paintings by the master craftsman, Chitrakar, the work highlights the legacy and richness of traditional idioms from where contemporary practitioners continue to draw inspiration.
Chowdhury’s quirky crosshatch drawings capture human nature and its foibles in an inimitable local Bengali flavour; they reveal the artists’ deep affection for his cultural background. “My background is relevant”, he once remarked in an interview, explaining that his life in Kolkata was “quite disturbed with political movements. I paint also the Bengali business class worshipping the icon and their corruption, how they degenerate just like the flesh”.
In contrast, the works of Mazumdar and Chakravarty (who recently did a solo show at Musee Guimet, Paris) display more eclectic international influences. Building from an abstract expressionist vocabulary, (although he prefers not to be slotted in any genre), Mazumdar’s works are to be experienced rather than seen, given their affinity for cross-disciplinary borrowings and the theatrical.
His enormous metal construct calls out to the spectator, a multi-media installation which combines technology and imagery to highlight the material qualities of its medium. Says Mazumdar, “I work primarily with metal and light. The source was giving birth to an illuminating being, a bright soul. The beginning of life called the nascent stage is what I have tried to show with this installation and thus used swelling of metal and an array of light on the bottom.” He adds that he has been playing with metal including copper and steel for several years now. “It’s a difficult task to create a piece of art using metal but I enjoy the challenge as the end result is graceful and satisfactory. The contrast of light that is fragile in nature when fused with metal weaves magic and it interests me a lot.”
Chakravarty fluctuates between Kolkata and Paris like a pendulum as she lives in former and works in the latter, has acknowledged the influence of French impressionism and Byzantine mosaic design, among other ideas, on her work. She avers that her works are immensely personal and intimate. Yet her quest is to transform these experiences into universal, even metaphysical, truths via her paintings and drawings which verge on abstraction.
Kolkata-based artist Avijit Dutta shows delicate watercolours juxtaposing elements of nature with memories of a bygone era in the solo show Ensoul. The 10 large artworks was presented by Gallerie Ganesha. His paintings poignantly combine the abstract memories of our glorious past with a contemporary iconography. He emphasises, “Ensoul means to hold something close to your heart and soul. My work is based on memories and relics from the past. The fond memories and sweet reminisces become a part and parcel of every person’s life, they often define him and also shape his personality.” Since his work is based on treasured moments that a person forever carries within his entity, its aptly titled Ensoul. He adds, “At the same time, I love nature so I want to bring people closer to what they have stopped appreciating.”