Category: Essay

Public Art and Art in Public: Performative attitude makes a spectacle of Permanence Those who wanted to watch his works had to do so only in front of the willful artist, in his studio at Malleswaram, from then on. The artist would use a lamp to show the relief sculptures literally in varying lights. There […]

Spectacles without a stage – an overview of Preksha Tater’s works This aspect of inclusion of the mundane appears again when she was working in the space of a fashion and design store, ‘Bombay electric’. She chooses a discarded wooden doll, aestheticised it with repeated use of price tags. Even the rejected is commodified here. […]

Detachment Vivek R. Singh ‘Bloom’ is a collection of paintings by artist Roohi Kapoor, showing at the Lalit Kala Akademi from the 28th of March to the 2nd April 2013. Recurring themes of fantasy and reality run throughout the show and, as the title suggests, Roohi’s works represent positive reflections on nature, women and life […]

9/11- A Two Dimensio nal Picture Representation of contemporaneity and art of myth-making in folk art : Bipin Balachandran“Either you are with us, or against us”- was the catchphrase of America’s so called war against terrorism after the 9/11 incident. Being a prime example of manicheanism, it shows the nature of narratives we imbibe as […]

Individual and the “Other” : Rajarshi Sengupta The never-ending argument about the role of “Individual” and “Collective” in making an object of art charts into a new direction with the intersection of craft practice with the urban forms. Some of the recent themes seen in Kalamakari dyed works and paintings from Srikalahasti leaves room for […]

Time for a Rethink the Perils of Print PortfoliosAs much as I love a well-crafted print, and as eager as I am to add various prints to my collection, there is something deeply disturbing about the ubiquitous portfolios churned out year after year by various printmakers’ camps. Such portfolios can be good bargains for a […]

Contemporary Indian women artists and the re-imaging of the female bodyThe concept of body and sexuality is always being dealt in a complex and sometimes in a paradoxical manner in Indian culture. At times, it is celebrated and again it is censored. Mythification becomes an important aspect in this context, garbing the explicit and frank […]

CINEMA ! A RETROSPECT OR A DWINDLING MEDIUM? AN ANALYSIS ON THE STATE OF CINEMA IN CONTEMPORARY TIMES WITH ITS RICH HISTORICAL LINEAGE! – Dinesh KhemaniCinema has asserted its presence since more than a century now. It has evolved with time and has experienced various developments technologically and expressively. Ever since the potency of the […]

CINEMA CULTURE IN SOUTH INDIA – Manjunath S.We have lost the magic of various still visuals’ capacity, while positioned in sequence, behaving like moving images. The specific experience of what they communicated is unique and already historicized by now. It was an age of the archaic age of technology in the Indian context. However, the […]

MEETING OF TWO ICONS- Rajarshi Sengupta This article was written as a result of visiting Lepakshi festival (September 2012) in Leakshi, Hindupur district, Andhra Pradesh. The event took place on occasion of an annual religious festival there and also to spread public awareness about the heritage site at the same time, where A.P. Tourism promoted […]

DIASPORA AND REINFORCING OF IDENTITIES IN FILMSMulticulturalism and the Diaspora have become much debated and contested terms in the politics and cultural ethos of the 21st century. Th e ‘melting pot’ that Britain and the USA have oft en been described as is highly confl icting – in that it oft en seeks to marginalize […]

CHANGING ICONOGRAPHY OF WOMAN POWER / SHAKTI IN INDIA It is ironic that a nation that has venerated and held in an exalted position Goddess or Shakti , is also living with the ignominy of both practicing and accepting female foeticide Shakti has been revered since pre- Vedic times, and over time, the imagery has […]

THREADING A FRACTURE Even in anodyne discursive deliberation—in the regime of art fi eld, to proff er a trope much favored by Alain Badiou—craft , and its trendy metonymical step-sister “reskilling” art inaugurates a hermeneutics of suspicion evidenced in the re-qualifi cation of savoir-faire and renewed interest in traditional techniques by relocating craft ’s space […]

This has been a query that has haunted the art world in almost a Benjaminian sense of haunting, which is, when anyone posits the query – what is art? This has been a contentious and much debated issue since human civilisation started recognising art as a facet of humanity. And the answer or rather the […]

RAJA RAVI VARMA A MODERN ARTI ST OF INDIAThough his style was western but for the theme of his paintings and oleographs, he was very close to people, his art was also appreciated by common men. Raja Ravi Varma was born in the ruling family of Kerala. He was a genius in the field of […]

Mythology in Post-colonial Indian arts At the outset of the festival season, this piece tries to unravel the eternal truth of the gods and goddesses, epics and jatakas. India, a 60-something nation, boasts a 5,000-year-oldcivilization, thanks to the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Puranas, Jatakas, Peers, prophets, Tirthankaras and Buddha.Mythology connects India from Guwahati in the East to […]

Evening in Varda Ram and Manohar Singh throw their heads back and guzzle streams of Haywards Super Strong 5000. It is late evening in the village of Varda, the setting sun is encircling the Aravali hills, and the peacock that moves to his special tree each night can be heard crying his usual cries. He […]