when the world is a rat race all i want to do is drift i don't fight for change the change flows through me if i am true i will achieve my goal and travel from the heavens to the deep blue sea
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
DRIFTING STILL
Dear Drifters
Thanks & Best regards
Art Konsult
23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi-110016, Ph: 011- 26531819
M: 9811436878
W: www.artkonsultindia.com
Saturday, June 12, 2010
an invitation to drift: just a little bit further
introduction :
Drifting stillis proposed as a continuation of a curatorial urge to propose a new understanding of emerging, invest worthy artists and exhibition display. the show opens on the 15th of september at the art konsult gallery with the lauch of the post show catalouge launch of drifters- delhi+mumbai and a pre show catalouge of drifting still
The notion of investment:
One of the biggest philosophical crises of our times is that the notion of investment is seen only through the prism of financial profit. There is a growing cacophony of laments about art works being reduced to being just commodities. What we are looking for is a shift in framework from 'just commodities' to 'also commodities'. Though institutions like Akshardham have heavily used art as social or cultural investment, (we) the (self-proclaimed) mainstream of contemporary Indian art continue to understand investment mostly in financial terms.
This curation (again) attempts to propose that investment in art should be understand in broader cultural and social terms. An artwork plays many more social roles than transferring financial value. The value generation has to be seen in terms of cultural, political, historical and philosophical (apart from the once dominant but currently out of favor term called aesthetics)
Moving on to the notion of emerging artists:
The prevalent notion of investment casts a long shadow on the notion of emerging artists. The system tends to translate 'emerging' as young invest worthy artist. The artist list of Drifting Still is inspired by the urge to highlight artistic practice, rather than (just) the end product. It reflects the curatorial believe that when progressive becomes the mainstream and obsessive, one of the ways of radical resistance is located in the conceptual domain of drifting.
The selection is of bunch of artists who have unconsciously or ideologically have shown a great investment in the idea of an artistic journey, and produce work, which has enough aesthetic depth to ensure that open up possibilities of redefining the meaning of investment.
On text and display:
'Drifters' in Delhi was my first major curatorial experiment with display and text image relationship. Like most experiments, it was only part successful. In this show, I would like to take the experiment further…learning from the past and exploring current imaginations.
Please refer to http://weareherenow-take1.blogspot.com/2009_09_01_archive.html
List of artists:
1. Rabindra Patra
2. Paribartan Mohanty
3. Kanak Sashi
4. Anindita Bhattacharya
5. Shantanu Lodh
6. Vinima Gulati
7. Nidhi Khurana
8. Puja Puri
9. Pratibha Singh
10. Akshay Rathore
11. Surya Singh
12. Megha Joshi
13. Akash Gaur
14. Michal Glikson
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rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
Monday, April 26, 2010
my interview on drifters
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rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Fwd: Stop a nuclear disaster..read a review
| NEW ART ON THE BLOCK | ||||||
| Art Konsult, New Delhi, recently showcased Drifters exhibiting works of 16 artists. The show was curated by Rahul Bhattacharya. Alana Hunt reviews this curatorial experiment. | ||||||
 | ||||||
| The Drifters, recently on show at Art Konsult in Delhi, emerged as a kind of 'curatorial experiment' put together by Rahul Bhattacharya with the involvement of 16 artists. Entering, down a small flight of stairs, into a long narrow and low basement, in which artworks appear quite comfortable hanging not just from the walls but also the floors and ceiling, The Drifters can at first seem disorienting, overwhelming, almost claustrophobic. But after first impressions settle down the bursting gallery space itself becomes more like a cosy, busy and informal environment to be in – particularly in the midst of a cold Delhi winter. Bhattacharya's curatorial experiment takes shape in a number of ways. The standard eye level has been shifted, images are hung on top of images, the traditional white cube is replaced by walls coloured specifically to suit each body of work, and the regular curatorial statement that tends to guide the viewer has been replaced by single words that appear plastered all over the exhibition space – providing an array of loose entry points into both the individual works and the show as a whole. It is an interesting attempt to move beyond the apparent didacticism of the conventional curatorial statement. However while the nature of the words' presentation, as relatively large bold black stickers, undeniably provided an entry point it was an entry point that kept me at the gate. The suspension of my own 'disbelief' or rather my ability to become absorbed by the works themselves became almost too occupied by the words as physical stickers which inturn made that initial sense of didacticism difficult to wholeheartedly escape. The curatorial drive behind the exhibition was not so much based upon the conglomeration of a group of artists around a certain theme, but rather it was about bringing together artists whom Bhattacharya felt responded to the boom of the Indian art market in recent years with a certain kind of resistance; a resistance that entailed a determination to maintain, amidst the fervour of a booming market, what Bhattacharya has described as 'one's own artistic journey'. In the context of the global financial crisis of late and the slowing down of the Indian art market the timely nature of this curatorial move is no coincidence. In this sense the artists seem to be presented and held up as a group of practitioners who pertain the capacity to drift through the thick and thin and the highs and lows of it all, regardless. Although I tend to shy away from the use of this term, "identity" nevertheless does seem to run as a strong undercurrent to many of the works in the show. From Puja Vaish's focus on childhood as a site of cultural and social conditioning in Masquerade, to Parinbantana Mohanty's video a lot of PRESSUR on CONFIDENCE whereby a young male torso becomes the site of experience – historical, fantastical and sexual – against a backdrop of consumer culture that includes Disney, Macdonald's and of course Che Guevara. A computer generated body, with rock solid breasts and a supple vagina that moves with each thigh as the figure walks richly evoked that awkward feeling of the abject in Kumar Kanti Sen's videoDemon Walking, while Megha Joshi's installation of giant human sized safety pins gathered together in front of a rich red velvet curtain in the work Family Photo was given a nice touch with the inclusion of small proof sheets inconspicuously pinned to the wall. But it was the subtlety in Al Saidi Hasan's work, installed as a performance during the exhibitions opening and hence appearing almost out of place in the larger exhibition, that held a surprising degree of resonance. The performative ad hoc nature of the installation of Hasan's work was orchestrated as a means to reflect the way in which Hasan, an Iraqi, ended up living in Delhi as a displaced person due to the consequences of the Gulf War. In one of Hasan's works, which depicts small hand decorated ceramic angels, some of which appear as sculptures in the exhibition, have been superimposed over pictures of monuments in Iraq. The symbolic nature of these angels, both eternal and artificial, hovering over monuments that may well today, after the havoc of war, only live on in image form, speaks of the imagination of displacement and loss. As a curatorial experiment The Drifters certainly succeeds in finding interesting ways to occupy space and hang pictures on walls, be them vertical or horizontal. However the works in the exhibition itself, while clearly moving across a range of artistic mediums, from digital prints and paint to sculptural installations, performance and video, are, in the context of what we have come to know as contemporary art, largely conventional artistic mediums and methods in themselves. This ultimately makes it difficult for the show as a whole to move into more really experimental realms of artistic and curatorial practices. Drifters Curated by Rahul Battacharya Al Said Hassan, Anindita Bhattacharya, Kanak Shashi, Kumar Kanti Sen, Megha Joshi, Nidhi Khurana, Paribartan Mohanty, Pratibha singh, Puja Vaish, Rabindra Patra, Raj Mohanty, Rajib Pani, Saumya Ananthakrishna, Shantanu Lodh, Vinima Gulati and Vinita Dasgupta December 18 - January 25, 2010 Art Konsult, New Delhi | ||||||
| ||||||
rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
From: Anoop Kamath <anoop.kamath@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Mar 14, 2010 at 6:03 PM
Subject: Re: Stop a nuclear disaster
To: Shantanu Lodh <artmaharaj@gmail.com>
Cc: "rahul. bhattacharya" <evilareve@gmail.com>, Anil Dayanand <anildaya@gmail.com>, jayaram poduval <jpoduval@gmail.com>, roy thomas <pulikunnel66@gmail.com>, baalalook@gmail.com
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <extallur@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 11:16 AM
Subject: Stop a nuclear disaster
To: artmaharaj@gmail.com
Hi ,
Our government is churning out one hazardous bill after another. This time it is a bill called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, and it's coming up for a vote in a couple of days.
The bill lets U.S. corporations off the hook for any nuclear accidents they cause on Indian soil. They'd only have to pay a meagre amount, and Indian taxpayers would be stuck paying crores for the nuclear clean up and to compensate the victims.
Without any public debate, the Prime Minister is appeasing American interests and ignoring our safety.
Greenpeace is launching a petition asking the PM to hold a public consultation before introducing the bill.
I have already signed this petition. Can you join me?
http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote2
Thanks!
extallur@gmail.com
You are receiving this email because someone you know sent it to you from the Greenpeace site. Greenpeace retains no information about individuals contacted through its site, and will not send you further messages without your consent -- although your friends could, of course, send you another message.
--
:)ANOOP KAMATH
534, Sector 29.
NOIDA 201301 (Uttar Pradesh)
India
Mob: 9811168775
Tel: 91-120-4210540, 4210539
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Re: regarding a bit of curation.
Its simple why Pratibha called you, as you are the link between gallery beyond and artists, I dont see any reason why u getting so anxious about such an issue, you took responsibility to deal with 16 artists and this is what dealing is all about.
Now as Pratibha raised issue and you re-defining curator's job, i would like to put forward some points which i would like to raise, now it depends on you, how u wana address them. because there are certain matter which are out of your control, like why art work dispatched so late when it was decided that it will leave on 22evening?, but rest other things which shows that you were not careful.
1. From the very beginning I have been telling you about my surname spelt wrongly, "sashi" instead of
"Shashi",
I really dont know how loud u need to be, to fetch some attention regarding such an important issue. And
then I saw "paribartan's" name as "Paribartab" on Mumbai exhibition poster, I enquired with gallery beyond
and they said, this is the same list we have received from delhi gallery, now we need to ask who takes
responsibility for the names not spelt correctly, does it come under curation or not?
2. The second thing, which is really annoying. Gallery Art Konsult asked for the write up and 20 work images for
the marketing people, i repeatedly asked you, if its just for marketing team not for "catalogue" or wall text,
and you have made it clear that this was just for the marketing team, I felt good and secured.
around 24 of Jan i called you and discussed you, that i feel like putting a write up along with my work in
mumbai, but u suggested me, a write up will make my work too literal, it will block work. Good enough reason, i
got fully convinced, and chapter closed.
10 feb evening we all had fun with the photo session, lots of chit-chat, then i was talking to this girl, and
she started asking me something about my "transition", and i was wondering how she got to know so much
about me, i asked her...and she showed me these papers..which attached with curator's note, and there was
write up which i have given for marketing people, i was shocked to see that, i came and talk to you about
this, u simply said sorry...but rahul does that sorry really mean anything to you? for me my identity, and how i
come out, is very important, and i do that at my own pace, it took me three years to come in terms with things
to come out in artists circle, and when i asked you that i want to put a write up, that means i wanted to write a
particular note about this work and how i reach here etc, not just about my "transexuality".....Dude you really
need to be bit more sensitive and careful, i think here you are lacking in your job.
Regards
Kanak
dear all,just got a call from pratibha regarding mention of some works missing form the consignment note she received from gallery beyond. the mention of yeshwa's works and one large paper work is not there.i was told by pratibha that it was by job to look into this kind of stuff. obviously there is a vacuum in understanding the role of a curator...specially one who dopes not deal with art or make money form the sale of art in his/her curated shows.my role is to conceptualize the show and execute the conceptualization in terms of catalogue and display. of course on the side (at a personal level) i would not like my artists to be safe in terms of post sales money and consignment.....but sorry to have to assert that this is not my job.right from the beginning i was clear where the work was being shown...and then when we had a chance to travel, there was a meeting held to say to what extent i was responsible etc.what pratibha faces (till now) is a minor problem...one phone call and email away to solve...and am more than willing to help her solve it....but to be told am lacking in my job to solve it is personally unacceptable to me.bestrahul
--------
rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
regarding a bit of curation.
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rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
Monday, February 15, 2010
the drifters: following up
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rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Future Generation Art Prize: Call for Applications
--------
rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
From: e-Flux <info@mailer.e-flux.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 9:21 PM
Subject: Future Generation Art Prize: Call for Applications
To: evilareve@gmail.com
|  |
 | | |
 | ||
| Share this announcement on: Facebook | Delicious | Twitter | ||
| Call for applications The Future Generation Art Prize is a world-wide art prize of 100,000 USD open to all artists up to the age of 35. . Online application from 18 January till 18 April 2010 http://www.futuregenerationartprize.org The jurors are: • Daniel Birnbaum (Sweden) – Director of the Städelschule Art Academy, Frankfurt am Main; Director of the Venice Biennale 2009 • Okwui Enwezor (Nigeria) – Director of Documenta XI; Former Dean of Academic Affairs and Senior Vice President at San Francisco Art Institute • Yuko Hasegawa (Japan) – Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT); former Chief Curator of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa • Ivo Mesquita (Brazil) – Chief Curator at the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo; Curator of the 2008 São Paolo Biennial • Eckhard Schneider (Germany) – General Director of the PinchukArtCentre • Robert Storr (USA) – Dean of the Yale University School of Art; Director of the Venice Biennale 2007 • Ai Weiwei (China) – artist 20 shortlisted artists will show their work in an exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre. The jury will select one main Prize winner who will receive a total of 100,000 USD (60,000 USD as a cash award, and 40,000 USD toward the production of new work). An additional 20,000 USD will be allotted to fund artist-in-residency programs for up to five other special prize winners. Images of works by all the shortlisted artists will be posted on the PAC website, and members of the public will be invited to vote via the Internet for People's Choice Prize. The prize is established to discover and provide long-term support for a generation of emerging artists, wherever they may live and work, this unique artist-focused prize aims to make a major contribution toward the production of new work by young artists. To encourage the assistance of one generation of artists to the next, a group of renowned Mentor Artists has committed its long-term participation in the Prize and will provide in-person counsel and support to the Prize winners. The Mentor Artists are Andreas Gursky, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami. Partner platforms: • LA><ART (Los Angeles, USA), http://www.laxart.org • Capacete (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), http://www.capacete.net • Viafarina (Milan, Italy), http://www.viafarini.org • ArtHub (Shanghai, China), http://www.arthubasia.org • L'appartement 22 (Rabat, Morocco), http://www.appartement22.com • Artis - Contemporary Israeli Art Fund (New York, USA / Tel Aviv, Israel) http://www.artisrael.org  | ||
|
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Check out Going against the tide
Hi,
I want you to take a look at : Going against the tide. it is one of the earliest reviews published on our show... extremely non critical...but really well written parts.
Monday, January 11, 2010
moving on...moving ahead
Introducing the drifters
The Dfiters is a complex snap shot of new contemporary Indian artists who work out of (the culture-scape called) Delhi. The show puts together a mix of artists' whose works the city has not quite engaged with (in terms of the dominant gallery structures), and even if they have, there is a certain commitment to the concept-metaphor called 'an artistic journey'. Notions of existence that are focused on journeys are conceptually opposed to an approach towards living and culture that are focused on the destination.
Recent developments in the post modern world has presented us with an unique opportunity to re examine the imagined meaning we associate with the words 'progressive' and 'drifting'.
Traditionally these words have signified a focused socio-politically forward moving tendency and a directionless non radical movement respectively. There is a strong possibility that when progressive becomes the mainstream and obsessive, one of the ways of radical resistance is located in the conceptual domain of drifting.
The roots of this though lie in the notion of Wu Wei - a central concept in Taoism. The literal meaning of wu wei is "without action". It is often expressed by the paradox wei wu wei, meaning "action without action" or "effortless doing". The goal of wu wei is alignment with Tao, revealing the soft and invisible power within all things. It is believed that masters of wu wei can observe and follow this invisible potential, the innate in-action of the Way. In ancient Taoist texts, wu wei is associated with water through its yielding nature. Water is soft and weak, but it can move earth and carve stone.[1].
The sixteen drifters are Megha Joshi, Raj Mohanty, Pratibha Singh, Kumar Kanti Sen, Rabindra Patra, Puja Vaish, Paribartan Mohanty, Shantanu Lodh, Kanak Sashi, Saumya Anant Krishna, Anindita Bhattacharya, Vinita Das Gupta, Rajib Lochan Pani, Nidhi Khurana and Al Said Hassan. They were invited into the show and are curatorial deemed important as artist who have in their art and artistic practice have been resistant to the stylistic fashions of production and consumption, that have/had become dominant (stiflingly hegemonic), thrusting Indian art towards a straight jacketed idea of internationalism. The snapshot claims complexity because it does not fit into the conventional idea of upcoming artists, yet it is constructed out of a curatorial hunch regarding an array of artists who have been working in the city for sometime now and have worked away from the market glare and the all consuming stylistic homogeneity. One key aim of this show is to establish that art exists outside of dominant trends and often such work often reflect a layered sense of artistic practice and a kind of personal engagement with art making which was being rendered unfashionable during the market boom that clouded our taste. (the focus was essentially was on the artwork as a commodity.)
This is a non thematic show; the curatorial enterprise instead chooses to focus on a critical selection and working out display in close collaboration with artists. I have opened a blog at http://weareherenow-take1.blogspot.com/ , as a part of the confirmation, the participating artists are invited to join the blog (separate invites for which are being sent). The blog was proposed as a site where in the participating artist and the curator meet and exchange ideas. It is also a site where in artist are invited to upload the works/concepts being prepared for the show. The blog did not turn out to be what one set it up for; nonetheless it has become a site that stands as an important documentation of the show being conceptualized, and the discursive spirit that informs the display.
Here in India, we take the white cube for granted. Even our museums walls are white and large. Thus art viewing spaces for the contemporary public[2] in post independence India has shaped up in a manner that white walls and eyelevel display are norms that are almost unchallenged. This exists' inspite of us all knowing that this notion is culturally temporal, and our non secular past has left enough archeological evidences to re mind us that viewing has got a lot of different possibilities. Even in euro America (the cultural sphere which largely influences our notion of art, display and criticism), one does not have this over arching domination of the white cube[3]. Boldly coloured walls, and display at various eye levels characterizes displays across Europe, and has informed museum displays across America[4]. This curatorial experiment tries to combine inspirations form London art shops, European museums, churches, cave architecture and temples, working towards a new language of display and rethinking viewing experience.
Through this show there has also been an attempt to engage with the relationships between the wall text and the image. Though one acknowledges the role of a the text as having a critically interpretative value and its function as a context framing device, there was a certain discomfort with how a linear narrative wall text tends to try and explain art works even before they have a chance to 'speak for them selves. In this show we have used broken texts across the walls and ceilings designed in a manner that gives the viewers an abstract framework though which to enter the works without actually speaking for the work. Of course later the catalogue text will carry linear notes of artistic intentionality and curatorial interpretation.
This exhibition is a part of the ten years celebrations of the Art and Deal Magazine. This has been organized as an acknowledgement of the way in which the artists from Delhi have supported us. From that basic premise, this show has changed to become a curatorial project which re thinks the notion of 'up coming' and 'contemporary'. The show was initially tiled 'We are here now-Take 1' as a reaction to the mid recession fantasy for a 'gen- next /up coming contemporary' show'.
.
[1] Jones, Richard H. Mysticism and Morality: a new look at old questions (Lexington Books, 2004)
[2] Contemporary Approaches to the Social Contract, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Principal Editor: Edward N. Zalta, substantive revision Fri Sep 5, 2008
[3] A Cabinet of Critiques - Museum of Modern Art's "The Museum as Muse: Artists Reflect" exhibition
Art in America, Dec, 1999 by Eleanor Heartney http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_12_87/ai_58360975/
[4] Art History and Art Politics: The Museum According to Orsay Daniel J. Sherman
Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1990), Oxford University Press.
rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
----------------------------------
Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com
