Fwd: Stop a nuclear disaster..read a review

drifter's review on the www.matterofsart.net site

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specifically to suit each body of work, and the regular curatorial statement that tends to guide the viewer has been replaced by single words that appear plastered all over the exhibition space – providing an array of loose entry points into both the individual works and the show as a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

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rahul bhattacharya
managing editor
Art&Deal Magazine, 23, Hauz Khas Village
New Delhi - 110016. Ph. 011- 26531819
www.artanddealmagazine.com
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Can it be Done in Any Corner You Like?
http://theblackyellowarrow.blogspot.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
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

Dear Shantanu,

Please see the MOA March 2010 upload. Drifters review by Alana Hunt is in the review section. http://www.mattersofart.net/

:)ANOOP

On Sat, Mar 13, 2010 at 1:40 PM, Shantanu Lodh <artmaharaj@gmail.com> wrote:

---------- 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
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