an invitation to drift: just a little bit further

on drifting:

 

when the world is a rat race

all i want to do is drift

i dont fight for change

the change should first flow in me

if i am true i will achive my goal

and travel from the heavens to the deep blue sea

 

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

 

 

--------
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

my interview on drifters

hi there

 

http://a52.video2.blip.tv/7350003929788/Livemintpodcasts-LoungePodcastOfRevolutionariesArtistsMillWorkersAndCapi345.mp3?bri=1.8&brs=87

 

this link carries my interview on the notion of emerging artits and our show Drifters

 

best

 

rahul
--------
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

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

--------
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

---------- 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
Mob: 9811168775
Tel: 91-120-4210540, 4210539

rahul

i dont like the feel of this you can do what you like and think what you wish to, as a curator it is your responsibility to make sure your artist doesnt keep wasting her time in back and forth in receiving an official receipt of her works from the gallery,

you need the works by a certain date to have a show, why not send the challans also at time so we can also just file it and carry on. 

here is where we are even after repeated mails and reminders and calls on the same..

let it be..i dont have time for this kind of emotional baggage i rather be free and paint rather run after you guys for the challans which is any way your responsibility, shut the chapter, this was a head ache any ways, if this cant be done this week i wld like to withdraw from drifters show.

and if you dont waste all you time in thinking and drafting and highlighting these kind of mails may be you can be of some use 

up to you but i wld not get into this kind of shit such a bad feeling 

pratibha

Re: regarding a bit of curation.

Dear Rahul ,
                     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
    

On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 12:13 PM, rahul bhattacharya <theblackyellowarrow@gmail.com> wrote:

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. 

best

rahul

--------
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

regarding a bit of curation.

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. 

best

rahul

--------
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

the drifters: following up

hi vibhu-prema,

it was great being with you guys. hope the goa camp has taken off well. for right now just a small reminder for the show images and consignment notes to the artists. please look into this as soon as you you can.

best

rahul

ps.: the day i left i was told that puja's text has gone for photocopy...please ensure that it is with the artists' statements...and do take care of the fallen words from the wall.

--------
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