Trumpets and Seeds?

Madhu’s creations throw light on the relationship /link/interdependence between the natural and the fabricated (from the natural). Normally what do trumpets have to do with germinating seeds? But Madhu’s painting challenges one to dig enough to see their co-relation. As they hover over these sprouting plants they seem to inspire life and energy into them to follow the upward direction of the trumpets themselves. Correspondingly the growing plants seem to support the trumpets (visually and in essence) through their co- operation. In a very subtle way the growing shoots seem to be upholding the trumpets. It is something not seen but sensed. The way the trumpets are positioned breaks the monotony of the linear walls in a very assertive way yet they are not there of themselves but have been placed there by another. They assert themselves not in an imposing way but rather in an obliging way. The dialogue between the sprouts and the trumpets is peaceful but not intimate. It is obvious that as they grow there is going to be intimacy. There is a strong likelihood that the mature plants will interfere with the position and function of the trumpets unless there is mutual respect and compromise. Here Madhu brings out the point that with growth there must be increasing mutual understanding, respect and compromise for the growth to be sustained.

Neha Jiandani
18/10/10

Off -beat Art in Off-beat Venus II

Samuha( 3rd Floor, A.D.A. Rangamandira, J C Road, 26th -31st Aug 2010) is currently hosting a show of eight women artists (Smt.Y Jayama, Smt. Devaki, Smt. K. S. Bharati, Smt. Sumitra Y. Putti, Smt. V. Vijayalaxmi Sundaresh, Smt. Nanda R. Putti ,Smt. M. A. Umalaxmi and Smt. Bharati G) who have no formal training in art. Their productions are childlike spontaneous expressions that are untainted by academic education. Their visual language and style is raw. They are emotionally charged with the enthusiasm of a child.
Charita (Mysore), the curator was inspired by the artworks produced by her aunt who is part of the show. Being impressed by the passion of her aunt she had the idea to have a solo show of her work which gradually developed into a group show including seven other women like her. The ambience of Samuha is charged with life as screens displaying documentaries of the artists work keep viewers engrossed.

Mysore Palace Entrance Portrait
-Nanda Putty -Vijayalakshmi

Even the arrangement of the artworks is raw and informal which seems to be deliberate to assist in emphasizing the overall essence of the work. They break some rules/norms of an exhibition which has been and intrinsic character of art ever since it existed. Nanda Putty’s ‘Mysore Palace Entrance’ uses water colours in different methods throughout the picture . The convenience of expression is what determines the strokes rather than technically correct way of using them. Vijyalakshmi’s portrait is not based on rules of anantomy but purely on observation as is evident in the strokes.



Slender Loris (thread) Bharati
Sumitra Putty Poster colour on paper

Bharati’s work is one that reminds the viewers of their own childhood or some drawing of their children done with great vigor and placed in front of their faces for appreciation. The fantasy image of bold strokes on notebook paper reveals some part of the woman that remains untouched by the discipline of demands of her environment.

Charita, through this show was keen to bring to light the intense artistic expressions of these mature women who are ignored in the mainstream art industry. Her passion to not allow this art to die in oblivion is what inspired the art event.

Neha Jiandani
28/8/2010

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