Off -beat Art In Off-beat Venus

“Behind The Seen” at 1.shantiroad(27th Aug- 1st Sep 2010) digs into visuality and the very idea of ‘a show’. It has successfully attempted to turn the canvas to face the wall and coax the viewers to see what is hidden behind that beautifully painted picture. This is the display of the productions of four individuals who work as technicians doing numerous odd jobs at four dynamic art spaces in the city.

Prabhakar D.R. (Goethe Institute, ‘Max Mueller Bhavan’) has been exposed to art and artists for the past 40 years. His sculptures made of scrap machinery parts display a skill and commitment that far exceeds those of some trained artists. The symmetry and balance of his sculptures are striking in their imitation of traditional Indian lamps.


Mohana ,( No. 1 Shantiroad, art studio) the caretaker for the past decade looks like an excited little girl as she animatedly describes her artwork to viewers. Her sculptures, made of fabric, plastic bottles and old saree material look like puppets that are about to do a performance. Mohana inspires life into these dolls through her dynamic expressions and gestures. These dolls are the representation of coolies, vegetable vendors who are her friends.

Artist: Subbaiah
Subbaiah (Samuha, a one-year long artist collective) who has been assisting Samuha is also a vegetable vendor and mason from Iglur. He says ,” Once he began assisting the artists, he was lured to make art which resulted in photographs.” He portrays his world of flowers, cows and rabbits…..his experiences that the consumer world is missing.

Artist: Shivaraju Artist: Shivaraju
Shivaraju (No. 1, Shantiroad) has been managing this place for a while now. He is from a farming community and is a cop by profession. Due to the inevitable circumstances of his life, he could not pursue a formal education in art. But this has not deterred him from expressing himself through the medium of photography. “Physical Labour” is the thematic concern that runs through his pictures.
Curated by city based artist Surekha, “Behind the Seen” is in honour of the quiet ones who work behind the scenes making many of the major shows in the city possible. The joy and satisfaction on the faces of each of these four artists proves that this show has served to appreciate their constant services better than mere words would have.

Light & Shadow

With Bangalore’s landscape transforming so rapidly, the current scenes in the city are sure to vanish before one can observe the rate of this change. There is already a great sense of nostalgia that is prevalent among us Bangaloreans as we move through the city even to get simple chores done. We suddenly realize that little shop has disappeared, that muddy road has now become a commercial street.
Srividya has captured scenes of the city in her photographic memory and reproduced them with the medium of charcoal, water color and paper. More than technical details, she focuses on the general visual culture of the city, the public areas that have not yet been touched by the mall culture of commercial market places. Her strong resistance to the recent constructions of Bangalore renders them non-existent when it comes to her artists productions. Yet it is a very easy process that comes so naturally to her.
Srividya’s illustrations of Dodda market (Mysore), Devraja Market (Mysore), Gandhi Bazaar, HAL Market, K R Puram Market, Malleshwaram etc with the raw look that charcoal renders express a desire to preserve these fast disappearing scenes at least in pictures. The process of registering these images of the city and reproducing them is something that comes almost unconsciously to the artist. Being fond of driving, as she moves around, the little bazaars catch her keen attention while the malls and huge bill boards just disappear into the background. In exploring the cityscape and expressing her observations she is also exploring herself and her own inclinations. Though her works are not technically experimental, they have a hint of it within them. There is a very slight tendency to push beyond what she has touched so far. The more this tendency develops the quicker will be her growth as an artist. There is also a strong need to break free from some traditional ways of seeing and expressing to come up with a production that would really catch the eye of not just viewers but even experts in the field.
The artist’s visual sensitivity to nature is very evident in her striking water colors. The bright pinks and yellows are very characteristic of the summers of Bangalore. The flower blossoms are painted very delicately among the thick brown branches. Even in these water colors there is the impression that the artist is preserving something of the city that at stake right now.
Having started off with water color she has gradually incorporated charcoal as her medium too. This shift is a positive sign as it suggests that she can move on to different mediums as a growing artist since new media works are more relevant in the current art scenario where it greatly contributes to the idea, content and visual language of the artist. Having had her bachelor’s degree from CAVA(Mysore) and her MFA from Chitra Kala Parishath, Bangalore, she has a good base on which she can build with her own expertise.
All said and done, Srividya is still at a very basic level in her career if she is aspiring to be known as a contemporary Indian artist. Though she has a keen visual sensitivity and a desire to express herself through the conventional mediums of artistic expression, there is a need for her to explore her concerns in a highly focused manner and become intensely individualistic in her subject matter. She is still to develop a characteristic style that would cause her work to be recognized as hers anywhere. Working earnestly and seriously on her style and content that reflects her typical personality will get her to the next level on her way up sooner.
Neha Jiandani
10.7.2010

Questionaire

What do you understand by the term curation?
What has been your foremost source of information on curation? (eg. Lectures, books, galleries, residency programs etc)
In your opinion, how does a curator add at an artists’ expression and work in an exhibition?
What has been the best curated show you have seen, and what are the reasons you rate it as best? (example catalog text, display design, combination of works, etc)
If you were out in the position of a curator, what would your first exhibition be about?
What do you think are the main differences between a curated show, and a generally grouped or organized show?


Curation according to me is the art of presenting art. It is an artistic practice where objects of art are the medium. Curation as a function is a bridge that links artists and the market to bring about a fruitful exchange between the two that is mutually beneficial and satisfying. Curation gives/finds the context where the selected pieces of art thrive as a unit. A curator is the architect of a show.
Interactions/ discourses with art theoreticians, lectures by art critics, books such as “ An Introduction to Contemporary Art “ (Oxford Press) have been the primary source of information for me. Galleries surprisingly have not been a great resource on the subject of curation.
A curator raises an artwork to another level of impact through strategic positioning and presentation. A curator places an artwork into a larger context where it comes alive. When uninitiated viewers (not just any but the targeted ones) begin to get involved in art through what a curator has orchestrated, it’s a great success. A curator fills in the missing elements through articulations that bring the artwork to its full potential.
I have not been very impressed by the curated shows I have seen so far in galleries here. In fact I have found some artworks having intense curatorial skills involved in their production than entire shows have had. For instance, a graphic novel produced by an outgoing student as her annual show project display great skills of curation in terms articulation/ communication and display. Her little illustrations just came alive through the novel.
If I had to curate a show now it would be about the ironies and idiosyncrasies of the art industry. It would be a satire that would capitalize on the history of satire in art since the last two centuries and how much more seriously it repeats itself today. It would be a show on the truth that there is too much parading as the truth in art.
A curated show has a lot of thinking and strategizing that goes into it. The artworks selected need to be intense and authentic as well as have a demand in the market. A generally grouped show is just like any exhibition of products. It gives no exclusivity to art as something more than a commodity.

Neha Jiandani

An Endeavour To Understand Art

From the beginning of time the realm of art has had and has a unique and strategic place and purpose both in time and space. There is no discipline (pun intended) besides art that contains the seed of eternity. Though eternity is boundless, it is also contained within the bounds of time. The unveiling of the mysterious connection between art and eternity is the essence of my endeavour. Art ( in the true sense of the word) is the exhaustive way to get to the truth. The relationship between art and speed (time) is extremely intimate and inter-dependent. The more the art involved, the more effective the method. In the process of practicing art the concept of ‘time’ changes. Art is the tool that redeems/reduces time. Art is the way of translating all theory into practice and vice versa. Art involves/engages skill, tact and strategy but the source of its power is too enormous for instant comprehension. With the passage of time, art through art has been gradually entering into it’s actual position and function in the fullness of it. The missing pieces of art are falling into place through the genuine practice of art. For all these centuries art has been breaking the borders that confine it. Every limitation imposed upon it was overcome. However through the demolition of these walls like a growing organism that has attained maturity, it is now discovering it’s actual walls that pre-existed long before and far beyond the imposed walls that had stunted it’s true image.
The opportunity for art to attain the fullness of its potential lies in the realm of warfare. It is here that art determines the total victory of one of the sides engaged in warfare. However it is only at the end of this entity called ‘time’ that the absolute victory will be known and announced as the ultimate.
When the practice of art can be fully translated into the theory of art and the theory into practice, this is when it can be said with surety that art has identified those pre-existing walls that marked out it’s position, shape, structure and function long before art came to life.
Interestingly, the success of an artistic endeavour is far too intimately connected with the motive behind it to escape the power of the intention. It is the source of the motive that determines whether the work is going to last or perish. One can deceive himself/herself for a while but will ultimately be found out embarrassingly often by his/her own words and actions. Someone has truly uttered that there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed.
Anything that is all inclusive loses it’s meaning, purpose……. Its very identity. Art has become all inclusive at the cost of diffusing its focus. It is difficult to determine whether art at its current state rejoices or pines over what it has forsaken in order to gain its current status. It is hard to say if Art in its true sense today is in a survival mode or a thriving ascent. Is there any sort of unity/collaboration in purpose and direction in artistic movements both locally and globally? (Here I am not referring to physical, emotional, intellectual events as much as I am targeting the spirit behind these faculties.)
What is it that really turns practice into art? Every practice contains an element of art ….yet practice just seems like a blueprint that is laid out for art to cover. Art definitely attains its purity through the impurity of practice, yet it needs to be fuelled and fed through various other resources. It needs to understand what it really needs. Since in any practice ‘time’ is of the essence, art becomes an uncompromising element to truly succeed. What then does art really consist of ? Apart from a strong desire to succeed it requires a violent resistance and a death to anything and everything that could come in its way. More importantly it requires a sobriety that becomes functional only after a certain degree of maturity is attained. Art in primarily engaged with the process and never with the product, ironically it is the products that are called works of art. The products definitely initiate other processes/practices that carry another facet of art (or at least the seed of it) but never contain the seed in themselves.
At this juncture I am reminded of the art of living courses that have become so popular. Personally I would like to attempt to understand Life and art as they are and just watch how art reveals Life to me and Life reveals art as is currently happening before my eyes. As I look back I realize that Life has constantly given me chances and opportunities to understand it. The opportunities that I have ceased have given me much but those that I have missed have brought about loses that I am perhaps permitted to not fully understand as might perish because of the intensity of it. The more I understand what I have ceased the more I see what I have missed. Perhaps this is what keeps me in check. I can neither become too arrogant nor too dejected.
I am always glad when Life reveals to me that I have a choice. The sense of responsibility that this revelation brings about is perhaps what causes me to make the right choice. I have come to realize that no amount of experience, head knowledge or passion can do to and within me what a revelation does. The permanence of the effect of a revelation is so intense that even my will cannot undo it. This is when I am totally convinced that I have gained victory because even if I want to I cannot undo what has been done.
This gives me hope because I begin to see that I do not need to push things with physical effort to see results. Though physical effort may play a role in getting a revelation, it is hardly ever with this sole intention that the effort is made. If I can recognize and catch a revelation, I know that I am not the same person anymore.
It is in revelation that Art finds its ordained place and function. Outside of it Art will never reach its full potential but rather be misused and abused to its ultimate capacity.
For a long time Art has been trying to find its meaning and purpose in itself. The autonomy that it claims is perhaps its deepest self-deception.
Art offers opportunities for refinement, for purging and purification if only one will yield to its true purpose.
Art has its limitations and recognizing its limitations is what will give it unlimited potential.


Neha Jiandani
14th April 2009
Final Year Project

Virtual verses Real

Concept Note

The mechanics of life today appears to have its control room of the virtual (the wireless- internet, mobile, i-pod…). What results when the created begins to pull the strings of the creator?….quite a pathetic situation. Becoming a slave to the virtual medium/media has caused one to lose a status that (s)he ought to have guarded jealously. It is precisely this phenomenon that is reflected in genuine artistic productions.

Artistic intentions range from being highly emotional and subjective to being political, economical, manipulative and even aimless. With such a mixture of abstractions motivating the productions of artists, who is not facing a dilemma on how to decipher this mixture and sort it out into a structure that is clear and directional as a whole(at an individual as well as corporate level)? The fake and the real actually can never be mixed but they are surely presented as a package where the responsibility of discerning is left to the receiver.

The field of art is one of opportunities rather than a discipline. The artist, the curator and the buyer are all presented with opportunities. In a scenario such as the art market, it is the one with foresight rather than the informed with the advantage. The educational system worldwide has taught people how to gain information but has not trained us on how to see clearly. Insight is the key to identifying the real and recognizing the fake.

Comment on the Display

It is well understood that images produce images. What people see is what they produce.
With artists moving from so called rural set-ups to cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, the impact of this shift is evident in their choice of subjects as well as style. The visual culture of cities is almost harsh to the sight of those who have only a few decades ago been introduced to the television or even electricity for that matter.

The alternative lifestyle offered by the city determines the styles of most contemporary artists. The works reveal a strong nostalgia as well as a struggle to cope with the current demands of city life. The relationship of memory and experience is manifested in the imagery in a conscious and unconscious way. Genuine art inevitably weaves together history (subjective and objective) into the present pointing towards the future.

The art works are a product of a process of yielding and resisting to impulses, thoughts and inclinations. The artists who are aware of the process have a greater control over their work.
The works on display here juxtapose the rural and the urban, not as belonging to different time periods alone but also as belonging to different geographical regions at the same time.

Neha Jiandani

September 2009

Art show at GBS

Culture’s Course through Discourse

The eccentric, intriguing nature of the word culture and what it is believed to embody perhaps was what led to the emergence of Cultural Studies as an academic discipline. The human pre-occupation (often obsession) with the elusive, the mystifying is what triggers and sustains every intellectual discourse in this arena. It’s a zone that has been created to meddle with insecurities and engage in the uncertain. Every question that the world shuns as idiosyncratic is brought up for dissection and scrutiny here. Is this done just to pacify/satisfy the need/greed of the intellect? Does it have a very strong sense of purpose before it launches into a discourse or does it aim to acquire/find its purpose through the discourse? Usually there arise no clear answers but instead more questions that are instrumental in causing one to live the answers of yesterday’s questions, though one may not realize it.

Cultural discourse is not so much about culture as it is about the agents that carry it. Culture always takes on the form of the agent hence understanding the agent is imperative in order to understand the cultural content and the mechanism of the relationship between carrier and content. For instance, Cinema gives a certain personality/dimension to culture which significantly differs from the culture that Drama carries. The individuals involved in these specific agencies, both, take on and give a characteristic to this specific culture…. The dynamics of this mutual exchange give this culture an identity that shapes up in a manner that is very similar to the way a human identity is built and as mysterious too. It carries the influence of so many other agents within itself but attempts to create for itself something beyond these influences.

Interestingly, the human identity is a micro-unit of the cultural identity thus always carrying the potential to alter it, even revolutionize it. All vehicles of culture like Drama, Literature, Music and the Arts consist of a network of people functioning in a particular/peculiar manner. This manner determines the route the agent takes/adopts to chart out for itself a niche within the larger framework of Culture.

A historical study of Culture reveals how this region acts as a buffer to the confining/conforming nature of the political/economic framework of which it is indeed an integral part. It’s a place of exploration, of indulgence, a place where there is no room for plastic formalities. It’s a region that welcomes, that allows. It’s a place that aims to give room for growth. Ironically it is also a place of excuse and a place where ignorance is excused. Culture is that place where the private is welcomed (not exposed) into the public.

What then makes culture different from Art? Art too is a place/space that accepts and includes much more than it rejects. Perhaps culture is the creation of a few master artists who chose to be the medium rather than use a medium to initiate a process of creation. Artists of culture always attempt to know the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. Cultural artists create while curating.

The role of language in culture is too integral to ignore. The language is not only the tool of communication but an entity that carries the very essence of the culture. It is the thread that always linked and continues to link the intentionally/unintentionally fragmented units of time and space. The nuances of the language reveal the beliefs, fears, assumptions of that culture. The tone always reveals more the words themselves. The tone is the body language of the culture.

The almost hilarious ability of culture to both unify and diversify makes it indispensable. The popular saying, “familiarity breeds contempt” is probably what makes culture work so well. Due to the diversity it can withhold within itself, it appeals even to the most uninitiated. Culture always comes as a package that commands attention.

Culture was initially outward looking. Over the course of time it has come to embody such a vastness that it’s look has now shifted inward. What is within its premise is now demanding more attention than what lies outside of its boundary (if there is one). It now looks at itself as a vehicle where different kinds of passengers walk in and out leaving behind something and carrying away something with them as they move on.

Cultures need each other in order to survive. They keep a check on each other and sort of prune and refine each other. For instance the culture of the media checks the culture of the cinema and vice versa. Yesterday’s culture cannot survive today. It has to be repeatedly interrupted in order to be sustainable. Culture has shifted from minding other businesses to minding its own business.

Earlier culture used to deal with what could be understood and therefore known. Now it has come to realize that there is far too much that it does not know and needs to deal with this issue. The times of today demand this and culture carries a responsibility to deliver the answer. Having chosen/fallen to embody what it does today, it cannot afford to escape these demands. With the kind of knowledge and power being generated outside its premise, there is a dire need to break through into the next level of function. It cannot afford to lose its relevance within the larger framework of society. It has a choice to either rise to the occasion or move into oblivion….. perhaps forever.

The multidisciplinary aspect of culture is now interdisciplinary or both. Culture now has to challenge itself in order to survive the onslaught of the next decisive moment. A time and space where it needs to give an account of its responsibility as a realm of expertise involving numerous occupants and functions. We need to know what culture is doing here at such a time as this.

The section of society most affected by cultural studies is the one that affects cultural studies. The intellectuals carry a certain kind of responsibility in their realm of influence. Keeping tract of the alternating expansion and contraction of this realm is part of this responsibility. There are intense and desperate needs that need to be addressed. There are political needs, economic needs, social needs, individual needs that have been neglected for so long that ignoring them has become a thinking pattern, a mindset. It then comes to a point of having to address thinking patterns that need to be bent and renovated. Its too painful, almost impossible to discard the insensitivity that has been harbored or/and hardened through time and experiences .We need to deal with what we have lost while gaining so much, what we have compromised through what we have appropriated. Much of this realm of erasure has been contemplated if not addressed by writers like Foucault and Derrida. Post-modernism has basically been in the business of breaking down mindsets yet escaping the responsibility of replacing this vacancy that it has brought about. Is it the calling of some other –ism or enterprise to give us an appropriate thing to believe in, something to lean on?

Culture like all other enterprises has a mandate to fulfill. Recognizing and charting out the details of this agenda or updating what already exists has been long due. Culture has been a region where excuse richly dwells. But excuse enters this realm expecting to be dealt with and not entertained. It is a space where refreshing/revival is expected. Culture though always prevalent, was never understood the way it is now. With the evolution of its understanding, hidden demands have been unveiled though not necessarily recognized. Culture’s methodologies and motives need to fall into alignment with each other. The non-convergence of the two diffuse the focus and disrupt the functional process. Though culture is an enterprise in itself, it is also a part of every other existing enterprise. Every decision taken here has a ripple effect, thus affecting every other section under its mantle. It’s a domain that covers numerous sites and these sites have given it the authority to make crucial decisions regarding themselves and how they ought to function.

Cultural dialogue in constantly determined by the prejudices and desires of the agents involved. Yet because of the diverse sources that generate and sustain the dialogue, the course it takes is most often very unpredictable and hence enlightening. The content may be clichéd but the direction the dialogue takes may be highly innovative thus reorganizing the content into something more sensible and relevant to today. The purpose of dialogue has always been to generate new ideas that are practical and that work. There are very real and grave factors influencing dialogue which cannot be totally grasped during dialogue since the focus is mainly on the content rather than the intent. However, trained minds constantly seek and attempt to decipher the intent as they know that that is the core issue. The content becomes merely a means to know the intent. Knowing the intent sums up to nothing unless there is a way to alter these intentions so as to fit a purpose and plan that deeply convinces the minds at work. Unless there is a way not only to think but also to communicate and present this plan effectively to bring about persuasion, conviction and performance of the highest degree, dialogues can be excruciatingly frustrating.

It is established thinking patterns that are the real target of dialogue. Flawed mindsets have limited our perceptions, experience and the quality of our life. Depraved minds have persisted in society for too long leading and misleading too many individuals who trusted in the experienced. Thinking that they know better we have fallen prey to a system that is far more destructive than we could ever imagine since our imaginations too are subject to this system. Often, some of our most disturbing experiences bring about a breakthrough in this system of thinking. When the revelation dawns that our understanding can fail us, a door opens for a new thinking pattern to enter. Both the patterns are then tested to see what really works not just mentally but practically as well. If the new one comes through then the old one dies forever in that mind. There is no turning back from then on, unless one deliberately chooses to stick on to the old even after experiencing its failure. It is not surprising that many make this choice as it is easier to live a lie than risk the new. It takes immense courage to take this leap. There is always a price to pay for something of worth.

Culture lies in performance, even the performance of theorizing culture. The culture of cultural studies is like a camera that from a bird’s eye view captures, edits and sometimes even manipulates the recordings it has taped. To know whether the position it holds was obtained or ordained needs some intense study.

Since culture is the behavioral manifestation of beliefs, fears, assumptions and suppositions, a single approach to understanding it would not suffice. Every aspect of its composition needs to be approached individually yet contextually to produce an understanding of what it really means. Every aspect of culture is supported by a certain world-view. It is these big-picture/big-brother views that really hold the roots of culture. Unless we view culture within this larger context we are invariably falling short of a sustainable understanding of culture and its domain and methods of influence.

Culture can also be viewed as the consequence of a number of decisive actions. Could it be an unpredicted/undesirable by-product of certain uncalculated decisions? Is it an unwanted outgrowth that has occurred due to a dysfunction in the existing system? Perhaps certain ancient boundaries were transgressed…. carelessly. Is culture a necessity then? Can we live(not just survive) without it? Has it always existed or is its history shorter than we think it to be? Is culture capable of answering these questions or will they be answered by some other enterprise that’s already carrying the answers?

17/11/08
Diploma in Cultural Studies
CSCS, Bangalore
Assignment 1

Default Screen

Introduction:

The visual always comes without warning. How do you reject the visual before it parades before you? Why should you reject it? It’s not worthy of attention unless it produces a vision higher than the one that produced it. The whole history of philosophy is a tale of the above sentence. The visual most often runs the show except when the vision supersedes the visual. Infact the visual are productions of visions. They are tangible manifestations of visions made available to our senses, intellect and emotions.

The visuals on display here are meant to produce visions. Quite obviously they are only tools to discover who you are, where you stand and what matters to you and is it really worthy a matter to think about? But then, are you what your opinions are? The visuals are prompts to assist in shifting one’s focus from the everyday to the power of a day.

It is not what you see in the image that really matters, but how strongly it affects the direction of your life and the duration of this shift. Every curatorial work has an agenda to affect either History or the Economy or both, but the success of it is measured by the range and duration of its influence and how well it has managed not be influenced.

Concept:

The visuals are a metaphorical comment on the DNA of cyber- culture. The frames are an imitation of the monitors in business settings. Expect here all the frozen screens reflect the freezing of culture brought about by the internet where the cyber-space is the only culture (though it ought to be called space) that experiences development, like a tornado that consumes all that’s in its way in order to move ahead. This is just one side of the Janus faced screen. What it screens is the pockets of world where time is frozen due to the lack of the web there.

It is the wireless that’s wired here. In a network every image is available in every system. The fact that one can glance at all of them at once that too full screen sizes suggests an advantage over the single screened computer. This aspect hints at the underestimated power that lies outside of the network. Though this power appears to be beyond the human ability to grasp as the eye cannot take in all the images at once, perhaps it is just a flaw in the way of seeing.

As the word suggests, the screen conceals aspects of the network of which it is a product. If we think we have seen something on the screen, a re-evaluation is necessary as it suggests that we have only just touched the border. Only in getting past the border can there be any real experience of the other and hence the potential for exponential growth in a direction that surpasses the borders of human imagination. The beguiling nature of the Janus face often makes it appear like the other when in fact it is always masking it from human perception and imagination. The sensationalism, sensuality, attractions of the screen is meant to distract, to disturb, to ensnare in order to protect what it conceals. That’s what it’s meant for. That’s who it really is!

There always are internal and external warning signals at the border. Borders are regions of conflict, turmoil and inevitably…. death. As it is true historically, even today victory lies in crossing the border. Contrary to most misconceptions, the endeavour here is not to break statutes but to innovatively breakthrough the border in collaboration with the rules. It’s about tact and skill in warfare. The only way to the other size is through the zone of terror.

Nevertheless (or rather hence), the surest way to know what really lies within this space is to look beyond its boundary. A show put up in an institute where the policies, the availability of space, the training or lack of it, the limits and the liberties prevailing determine the production of curatorial work. A show in a city that has no dearth of galleries and studios but where these spaces follow an economic and/or political strategy which excludes what springs up beyond the borders of its criteria, thus aiding in the institutionalization of site specific work. A show in a country that is still coming to terms with the enormous popularity its contemporary artists have gained beyond rather than within its geographic boundary, a space where the nature of art has changed too drastically for native digestion and assimilation.

Note on the Artist:

The Artist’s inclinations towards structures containing well-defined shapes contrasts with the otherwise captured emptiness of the skyscapes, revealing the human tendency to be extremists. The uncertainty that lies within the region of balance causes the artist to oscillate between the edges of the see-saw of situational crisis. The risk factor of the borderline where equilibrium exists is perhaps unconsciously avoided.

The photographer’s rejection of color and affinity for black and white images re-iterates the avoidance of the intensity that exists at the gravitational point where diversity converges. He personifies the general and widespread rebellion of the ideals of The University.

The two homes of the artist, the ancestral and the current are juxtaposed to counteract the diasporic effect of migration. Here is a display of the everyday as against the pilgrimage.

A place of birth and a place of growth entangled in a screened array! (pun intended)

Curatorial Work 1
Neha Jiandani
7th Semester
Art History Dept.
College of Fine Arts, CKP.

17/10/08