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By S. Kalidas
As you stand in sheer amazement beneath the
beehive attached to the under-side of the
staircase, the almost palpable buzzing comes
not from honey bees but hundreds of tiny ghungroos
(ankle bells). Across the hall, butterflies
flit about with their mirror-finish wings
of steel and assassin dagger bodies |
In
another section stand patina-shaded heads
of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Siddheshwari Devi
with mouths open as if engaged in a passionate
Jugal-Bandi (dute). On the landing is parked
a cycle-rickshaw Laden with a thousand lotas
(vessel to carry water). The ultimate hone
utility object of Indiana all over the North.
And trapezing over |
FORMAL VISION: Ghalotra with her showstopper
beehive made of ghungroos; Female Torso by
Raghav Kaneria (below left)
a tall column reminiscent of Ashoka’s
pillar is a Lonely acrobat figure, now fast
disappearing from our globalizing urban landscape,
the native nat or street acrobat.
These are just some of the tactile forms that
arrest your eyes and spur your imagination
in an enchanting exhibition showcasing the
trajectory of Indian sculpture over the last
century. In the best spirit of private enterprise,
it look a private art Gallery to mount this
major commemorative show, titled Bronze, celebrating
the century year of india’s first modernist
sculptor Ram Kinker Baij (1906 – 1980).
Commissioned by Renu Modi of Gallery Espace
and curated by noted sculptor Madan Lal of
Varanasi, the exhibition comprises works of
35 artists spread over two floors of Delhi’s
Lalit Kala Akademi galleries.
This landmark exhibition includes works of
almost ever major sculptor who made his or
her mark on the Indian art scene (the two
notable exceptions being Dhruv Mistry and
mrinali Mukherjee) from the late Kinkarda
and his Shantiniketan colleagues |
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and students like Sankho Chaudhuri,
Somenath Hore and Sarbari Roy Chowdhury
to those from the Baroda school such
as Himmat Shah, Nagji Patel and Raghav
Kaneria. There is also a representation
of the southern style with S.Nandagopal
and S.parasivam, while tribal traditions
can be found in the works of Jaidev
Baghel (an internationally celebrated
tribal craftsperson) and Meera Mukherjee,
who, thought an urban artist, used
the indigenous lost-wax process to
make her mammoth yet delicately detailed
sculptures. In this august company,
the more brassy in –your-face
works that tease the mind and mock
the eye have emerged from the hands
of the brave young postmodernists
who rule the virtual globe today and
include artists like Sunil Gawde,
Subodh Gupta, Riyas Komu and Vibha
Galhotra.
It is true that post –modernism
has freed (to use a jargon) art practice
from formal boundaries. Painting ,
sculpture, performance, use of ubiquitous
objects, popular pastiche, social
comment, historical reading, text
(often a lot of text), use of new
media like computers , television
and video all are grist to the post-modernists’
mill. And their ultra-revolutionary
rhetoric notwithstanding, it is a
bust mill in the global art marketplace
today.caught up with pretentious intellectualism
that the art they produce is often very
shoddy in
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its execution. It is as if
having idea, the artist can dispense
with the fabrication of the work.A
case in point could be senior conceptualist
Anita Dube’s untitled ‘work
- in - progress’. The
work juxtaposes two sets of twigs and
branches
of
dead |
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in that category who are so-be-working red
laser beam being projected from one set of twigs to the other. Well, for one,
with the laser beam not working even on the second day of the show, perhaps
the piece should go back to the studio till its progress is finished. Even
if the laser beam did work, it would take a lot of textual explaining on Dube’s
part and a lot more effort on the part of the uninitiated and naïve viewer
to get her moot, arcane point. The empress’s new robes? You get the
idea. |
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