EDITORIAL - Holla-Mohalla -An Exhibition Made on Order.. and more..

EDITORIAL

Holla-Mohalla- An Exhibition Made on Order

( Work on display. Image for illustrative purposes only)

In fact I do not want to say anything negative about the art exhibitions that I see these days. But sometimes I cannot help saying what I really feel. ‘Holla Mohalla’, a two persons’ show at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi is a ‘made on order’ show. I know this comment would hurt both the artists; Cop Shiva, the photographer and Suresh Muthukulam, the painter. Their point of departure is the Nihang Sikhs, the followers of the ideals of an army founded by Guru Gobind Singh. Holla Mohalla is a celebration of the Sikhs that often heralds the beginning of the Sikh New Year. You will get more about it if you google; so there is no point in me telling it. What surprised me is the absolute naivety of the exhibition. First of all I do not find any logic in Cop Shiva, a Bangalore based policeman doubling up as a photography artist, and Suresh Muthukulam, an acclaimed mural artist from Kerala, taking a very serious interest in Holla Mohalla. Now the ‘curators’ of this show; Jaya Mani and Sumati Sondhi. Jaya Mani is a gallerist who sells anything from paintings to brass vessels. Sumati Sondhi is an interior decorator. If you have already googled, Holla Mohalla falls in the month of March. Something clicked? If not let me tell you, Sikhs revere their gurus and most of them are extremely affluent. In the month of March, every affluent Sikh cannot go to Punjab to celebrate Holla Mohalla. So what do they do? They buy a work of art that celebrates Holla Mohalla, period. It is a well timed show, especially when it is inaugurated by none other than the flying Sikh, Milka Singh. Of course not Farhan Akthar.

( Work on display. Images for illustrative purposes only)

Is there any problem if someone creates a custom made show? For me, absolutely  no problem. But I am concerned about these two artists who are my Facebook friends. When I say, I am concerned, I mean it. First of all Cop Shiva. He is Basavaraju, a cop by profession and artist by choice. Being a cop helps his identity of becoming an artist. Had there been no cop tag, I wonder whether we would have gone into superlatives with his first show? But the world is like that. When he presented his first show, ‘Face Two Face’, media hailed him as a new finding. In the show Cop Shiva had documented the life of two people, who impersonated Gandhi and legendary actor-politician late M.G.Ramachandran. The works had made a good show; at least the theme was curious. It was a quarter anthropologic, a quarter documentary, a quarter aesthetical and the fourth quarter was the place where Cop Shiva could have improved himself. But before that people came in to cash in on his popularity. I am surprised to see that noted alternative art promoter Suresh Jayaram also has endorsed it by ‘jointly’ writing the catalogue text with Jaya Mani. I can forgive Suresh because Cop Shiva is his cousin. In these days of a dried up market, it is always good to have cousins who could sell art, whether it is on Sikhs or Marwaris. 

(Work by Suresh Muthukulam. For illustrative purposes only)

Suresh Muthukulam is a mural artist. His works have been very faithfully following the mural tradition of Kerala. But what about a Sikh buyer who would like to flaunt Guru Gobind Singh or virile, athletic and warrior-like Nihangs in fluid lines and dreamy eyes? He would definitely not like it. So here goes Suresh, out and out ready to water down his style which is neither Kerala mural style nor anything to do with Punjab or India in general. If Cop Shiva is depending on his camera, Suresh is depending on the pictures that he might have clicked for himself during his visit to Punjab. But let me tell you Suresh, the paintings look funny and caricature-ish. I was appalled to see a portrait of Jaya Mani in one of these paintings. The painting is sold as the red bindi tells me so. But isn’t it so ‘made to/on order’?  I feel sad. Because both Cop Shiva and Suresh Muthukulam are not supposed to be working like this. There are occasions when even a writer like me writes for the ‘clients’. But even then the writer’s self or style is not compromised. If my name goes along with an article, irrespective of the greatness of the works that I endorse, I take all care to be sincere to the hilt and well meaning. But here, both Cop Shiva and Suresh seem to be indulging in something that they should not have even touched. 

(Work on display. Images for illustrative purposes only)

Cop Shiva’s entry into art has already become folklore by repetition. He came to the city with his ailing father and Suresh Jayaram accommodated him at his 1 Shanti Road, the hub of alternative art practices in Bangalore. Cop Shiva, like many other cops who do not have IPS rank (for IPS and IAS people know everything including painting and poetry), initially did not understand art. But slowly he took a fascination for clicked images. He got hooked soon to the camera. Rest is history. Such a history needs to be embellished with sincere works. Frankly speaking, the works on display could be taken even by me provided I have an inclination to take it or have a good camera with me. Why I say me, because I am an art critic who has complete disdain for most of the images. To evoke liking in me is a difficult task. Cop Shiva should be left alone. It is easy for him to become a travel photographer and let me tell you can make sure someone is a travel photographer if he has long hair and an Enfield bike; I hate my own stereotyping, but I can’t help it. In a nutshell, Cop Shiva has put a load of virus in his clear thinking. Clear them up as soon as possible. Suresh Muthukulam should think about better projects if he wants to become a good artist. Mural paintings had led revolutions in Mexico in modern times. In our own context, they have registered history for us. Degenerating into hagiography and work on order would actually demean the medium that you use. I do not have any problem if it is all about making some money. 

Hope the parties discussed here would not file a defamation suit against me. Also, Karnataka Police will not frame me in some drug case when I go to Bangalore next. Whatever said above is in good and right spirit. Rest is up to you, guys. 

JohnyML

NEWS

Neon Temples, Masala Maggie and Iphoned Monks

( work by Sana Javeri Kadri)

Gallery Beyond, Mumbai presents a solo show of photographs by Sana Javeri Kadri. The show is titled, ‘Neon Temples, Masala Maggie and Iphoned Monks’. The show has on display a range of photographs which try to capture the versatile concoction of what India as a country represents. 

Balancing its religious roots and traditions which go along with the influences of the modernity and the new age, the photographs present the ironical flux, the coexistence and the symbiotic relationships of multiple ideologies flourishing under one roof of a tolerant society and nation.

The show is on view till 28th February 2014.

Hamnashee

( Work by Nisar Ahmad)

Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi presents a solo show titled, ‘Hamnashee’ of art works by artist Nisar Ahmad. Nisar is an Indian modern Urdu calligrapher and abstract Sufi painter. He is inspired by Nakshbandi and Chishty Sufi orders. 

Hamnashee portrays an expression of a lover, who is highly inflammable and consuming his self in love. At the exhibition, patrons can see the feelings expressed in colours, which reveals the powerful feelings recollected in tranquility. Metaphorically it is expressed as the anarchic expression of a true lover's heart and mind. The sublimity of Greek goddess trances in calligraphy, like a dimple cheeked celestial dame of a rosy hue transmuting the inner felt. The beloved, who is posing like an iris of genial desires, coming out in senses with gentle whispers. Hamnashee is not a guest, but a search within.

The show is on view till 1st March 2014.

Vibrant Hues

Jehangir Terrace Art Gallery, Mumbai presents a group show of art works by six upcoming contemporary artists. The show is titled, ‘Vibrant Hues’ and features the paintings and ceramic sculptures.

The participating artists are Ruchi Chadha, Sameer Sarkar, Subrata Das, Drishti Vohra, Mahhima Bhayanna, Shashikant Charbe. The works on displaya re vibrantly hued and portray figuratives and some abstract art styles. A few works have a spiritual bent in depictions. The show commences on 27th February 2014. 

The show is on view till 5th March 2014.

Nature Scapes

( Work on display)

The latest exhibition at Magnitude Art Gallery, Bangalore presents works of art which are original and exquisite in rendition. Following a new theme based on nature and its many bounties, the thoughtful paintings, would be best suited for anyone with a taste for good art or a keen art collector or buyer. 

The new theme titled, ‘Nature Scapes’ gives the city’s art lovers a beautiful respite from the mundane and morbid concrete jungle. The wide ranged subject has been dealt with very thoughtfully and many glimpses of nature have been captured in these original paintings.

The show is on view till 28th February 2014.

(News reports by Sushma Sabnis)

Review - Tanmoy Samanta's All I have learned and forgotten and more news..

REVIEW

Trajectory of Trash and Transmigration

A quiet world of subdued hues unravels in Tanmoy Samanta's works at Gallery Espace, in the solo, 'All I have learned and forgotten' made from traditional materials dowsed in untraditional thoughts, reviews Nisha Aggarwal

( A chair for nobody)

Two pronged antagonism indicted through the colours and sublunary objects, yet divulging the harmony, balance and symmetry. This is what lies at the surface of Tanmoy Samanta's paintings and 3D-book installations. It effuses into denser world of the artist, as one engages conversing to multiple layers of the works. I devolved into the artist's profound personal world, while visiting his third solo show at Gallery Espace, New Delhi, titled 'All I have learned and forgotten' from December 12, 2013 till January 11, 2014. 

The show engulfs 20 works soldering painting and 3D materials which take the viewer into evocation of time, space, memory and then beyond it. Tanmoy collects junked keys, locks, clocks, old books and maps that no longer keep their functional value. He ambles around flea markets and street shops in lost lang synes searching these 'out of time' objects. Then these objects are transformed into motifs that also appear often in his 2D works/paintings. Old books, glued the pages together, layered with rice paper, carved shapes out of the paper and added other objects to them evince another life they hold within. His recycled book 'shadow palace' shows how a colossal structure can disappear yet stay alive in the latent of one's mind. The protagonist here is a palace, which is symbolic of any building that has/had a denoting effect. It accosts that something dominion can be left behind just as a shadow without a body. 

(A Pair of goldfish)

Tanmoy's fervour of reading travelogues, indulgence with maps, globes, interest of tracing countries and continents exhorts in his work 'Cartographer's Paradox-I and II. He brings in all continents and countries together by rendering the dividing line invisible. Here, he becomes a mapmaker playfully making the 'jumbled up' maps without line and borders, tracing the inspiration from John Lennon's 'Imagine'. One hand, it questions the concept of political boundaries and on the other hand, gives them a new identity similar to his recycled books. He explicates these found materials both as an artifact and a medium. Thus, his artistic process becomes a metamorphosis to these objects giving them a new life, and manifold interpretations. His paintings also delineate the potential of umpteen testimonies. For instance, object like human figures, void like objects, eggs like void, unidentified objects like animals, weight that creates emptiness, and amorphous shapes seize the viewer into a zone of daze, arcanum, fantasy, poetry and philosophy. A sitting green figure holding a 'heavy' vacuum in one hand and a 'line' in other hand says what? A form lodged onto a red seated 'chair of nobody' is who? 'A pair of gold-fish' gives stance of tailor's scissors or tailor’s scissors are kept in an aquarium like bowl? A globe glares like an eclipsed moon or it's a shaky picture of a globe only? In 'at dusk' a bird is perched on a gun or on a branch? Watch dials encased in a 'bee-hive' shape makes 'the time hive', are examples of some 'visually created' questions to embroil the viewers. This 'visual play' becomes the interplay of a simultaneous act of remembering and forgetting, for artist and viewer both. 

( The Padlock)

Images, not of artistic imagination instead gathered from his surroundings create frozen narratives allowing the multiple readings. They are like statements of enlightened philosophers loaded with layers of meaning. Artist's control over line drawing makes him able to navigate images into one another, or transmigration of them. His technique has developed from the traditional Japanese school of painting where linearity is maintained while not losing the corpulence of figures. His training as a painter at Santiniketan is evident in the selection of traditional media like fragile rice paper, gouache, and pigments. It itself traces the history in the works of Abanindranath and Rabindranath Tagore both (artists of Santiniketan tradition). But the choice of traditional mediums has not impounded the relevance of his contemporary images and themes. 

( Shadow Palace)

Tanmoy's works expand into conceptual territory of magical realism, which is because he reads a lot. His parents belonging to the field of literature, exposed him to classics in his childhood itself and he continued reading them. A self-confessed fan of writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Franz Kafka, Tanmoy says that colours in his colour palette stem from his nature. His toned down and muted colours reflect him to be an introvert. He starts out with brighter and darker ones, but consciously mellows them down to subdue the cacophony of hues. Working on more than one canvas together, he creates multiple layers of the colours under the visible ones. He uses colour washes to get the fluidity of water-colours and the opaqueness of other paints. This way, his simple sounding works imbibe the complexity of process, meaning and interpretation. They dilate the level of epochal image-making from ordinary to extra-ordinary, and trace the trajectory of trash and transmigration, of images and objects both. 

NEWS

2D3D - Flavour of the Contemporary

( Work on display)

Gallery-g, Bangalore presents a show titled, ‘2D3D’, a compelling overview of fusion art with paintings and sculptures as part of its 11th anniversary celebrations. This amalgamation of art and sculptures is showcased through Gallery-g’s own AIP (Artist Initiative Programme) platform that promotes and showcases art that has never been viewed before. It also offers first time artists and artisans a platform to bring out the best in them. The nine-day long show will take Gallery-g’s AIP to the next level by entering into three different styles of art. 

Gallery-g explores three new regions, Andhra Pradesh with Kandi Narasimalu, Maharashtra with Priti Singh and the South Asian Region with its first ever show with Sri Lankan artist, Leo Pasquale. The exhibition explores three major themes embraced by this new generation of artists. One can find an aroma of affinity and affection for the home land in the works by artist Nasimhulu Kandi the artist in a very stylistically rich manner celebrates the many moments and episodes from his village in his work. He recreates them on his canvas keeping the unpretentious and natural attractiveness of the village folk intact. What makes the Sri Lankan artist Leo Pasquale unique is his artistic creations. Multiplicity of themes and technical styles is one of the salient features of his art. Some themes seem to be expressive of his personal life experiences while some signify the socio-political realities of the time. Technically he uses methods that are possible only in the computer and digital age, and in a large group of his work the geometrical approach is used meaningfully.

The show is on view from 22nd February till 2nd March 2014.

Holla Mohalla

(Work on display)

Visual arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi presents a two person show of paintings and photography by artists Cop Shiva and Suresh Muhukulam.

The show titled, ‘Holla Mohalla’  intends to soothe the senses and delight in the creativity of the two artists.

While Cop Shiva is a freelance photographer, interested in documenting life around and representing the spirit of our times, on the other hand Suresh Muthukulam is a young mural artist who expanded the rich opulence of many centuries old Kerala mural paintings tradition from temple, church and royal courtyard walls to novel and wider canvases.

The show is on view till 24th February 2014.

The Sacred Universe

( Work on display)

Bliss Art Gallery, Pune presents a show titled, ‘The Sacred Universe’ displayingworks by artist Rakhi Torani. 

The paintings revolve around Life and Universe and attempt to capture different elements of the universe which affect each form of life. The artist’s canvas demonstrates the effect of the universal changes on moods and emotions through a plethora of colours. Through these paintings, the artist has let go and surrendered herself to the wondrous experience of the universe, soaking every experience through colours in her paint brush and spreading it over canvas.

The show is on view till 8th March 2014.

( News Reports by Sushma Sabnis)