Slaying multiple Goliaths Sushma Sabnis his life, simply to shroud someone else’s intolerance, pettiness and fear. They felt there was more dignity in living a lie than expressing a truth. They even threatened to banish and exile him like M F Husain. How was that act dignified? We live in a country plagued with duality. […]
Month: May 2013
Cover Story
The Chinese Rajesh Punj Zheng’s Buddha in Cage, Wutai Mountain, Shanxi Province, 1998, is more observation than animation, as a large marble statue of Buddha is photographed at the very edge of the precipice, against a thick curtain of fog. The seated Buddha is encased in this rib-caged casket is held aloft by two bamboo […]
Essay
Freedom of Expression : Attacked because of being Undefined! H.A.Anil Kumar In 2013, one of the exhibitions in the rented galleries of Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath had a poster that warned about ‘the viewer discretion’. The Delhi based artist had digitally created sensational and sensuous imageries about Indian mythology, in a style that was reminiscent of […]
Essay
THE NEW MYTHICAL ICONOGRAPHY OF HINDUISM: FROM CULTURAL NATIONALISM TO POLITICAL THEOLOGY Bipin Balachandran Among the various goals of the rationale of colonial modernity, the one which attains a particular preference in the context of the formation of our nation-state is that of “demythification” and the execution of secular civil society through this process. In […]
Feature
Rahul Kumar Bhoomika Jain Rahul is among the fortunate ones… he does not have to wait for his art to sell to pay his bills, or to keep his conviction ridden quirky creativity, sinuous. This he says is liberating! That is perhaps why he succeeds “to use this medium to express, to honestly and genuinely […]
Feature
Reading the aphorisms on love by Akka Mahadevi and Muddupalani Aparna Roy Baliga She in her vachanas talks about love and longing, love in separation and union . ‘Once I beg the cupid Once again beg the moon humbly let go this viraha’ Her verses reflects Barthes‘…..the other comes here where I am waiting, here […]
Report
Women Re-Claiming Their Bodies in R.A.P.E Show JohnyML You may ask why. To answer this question I have to go back to the time when I conceptualized this show. Delhi was a morally shaken city after the gang rape issue. Perhaps, the whole nation was jolted out of its complacency regarding the issues of gender […]
History
Tracing the Origin of Censorship in Visual Art History HISTORY Dinesh Khemani The discipline of Art History attributes Raja Ravi Varma as the first Indian modernist painter. With the colonial rule gradually extending its wings to the sub-continent the notion of an individual artist was born. Meanwhile the West had already acknowledged the role of […]
Photo Essay
WORKING CLASS SUPERHEROES Vikas Maurya The gaze of the juveniles into the camera, their awareness of being photographed exudes a confidence that can be drawn parallel to professional paid gazes erasing divisions of the rich and poor.
A LETTER FOR YOUNG ARTISTS
The Business man, the Scholar , and the Hermit A Letter to Young Artists Waswo X. Waswo If you choose to eschew money and politics, if you devote yourself single-mindedly to your art, then, unless you were born independently wealthy, you need an ‘angel’ like Filomina to bring your work to the world’s attention. Without […]
Art & Theatre
Street Censorship Shardul Bhardwaj The debate does not continue because nothing else of this nature has happened again. I am very curious to see what will happen once we open our play which is about a gay love story in the city. The question is what the audience does when a case of active street […]
EDITORIAL
Freedom of expression has been a contested term in the contemporary scenario. Artists, musicians, filmmakers are continually plagued by the forces that are beyond their power. They become victims of various ideological apparatuses like the State and society at large. These authoritative bodies have always tried to suppress any idea or thought that has a […]
Book Review
Under The Skin Lina Vincent Sunish “To Mumbai: my home, my muse… “ is the dedication, and Husain begins his essay with an all encompassing comment that explains the book, “When one talks about a journey, one usually refers to starting out from one place and reaching another. My journey has been different. In the […]
Review
Defining the undefined Dinesh Khemani Going through his sculptures one can sense that the artist does not believe in following any grammar or rules. Like his paintings reflect his inner emotional state, so does his sculptures. They are expressionistic in nature with long elongated bodies, undefined faces and coarse use of the skin material. He […]
Review
INKED WANDERLUST: ROHIT CHAWLA – Uma Nair This year at the Religare he unveiled Wanderlust. In two parts along its lush walls here were nomads who belonged to a nether class. I use these words because Rohit the epicurean has this thirst to document what is rare and edge worthy-resonant filled and rather full of […]
Reiew
SHANTAMANI M – OPEN STUDIO BANGLORE Lina Vincent Sunish Hard hitting and poetic at the same time, the works evoke a range of responses connected to the external form and theme, and also continuing the integral connotations of the (precious) medium, that comes with a loaded history involving power and violence. The artist layers her […]