Prima Kurien, that is not a good designer act...
On Saturday, I went to Bikaner House and from there to Travancore House, where Bhuwal Prasad’s solo exhibition, 'Perpetual Drift', was inaugurated. My connection with the show is through the catalogue essay I wrote.
At the gallery, I noticed that the entire text had been reproduced on the wall outside the hall—something that, I felt, was unlikely to be read by anyone. Generally, a wall text is a blurb or a condensed version of the catalogue essay, running to no more than three or four short paragraphs.
What made me curious was the defacement of the text with some scribbles. I had already been handsomely paid, so I thought, “To hell with it. Who cares?” But curiosity got the better of my restraint. I asked the artist why there was graffiti on the text. He told me that the exhibition designer, Prima Kurien, had asked him to do it.
Well, Prima Kurien—or anybody, for that matter—does not have the right to do that. As an exhibition designer, she might have thought that only graffiti could draw some attention to a text that is so long and has been printed in its entirety in a vertical format, touching the ceiling. But that thought itself is pedestrian. She could have asked the printer to cut the text into different sections and placed them in each hall beside the works.
Now I have doubts about Prima Kurien’s design sense. Or was she trying to settle a score with me because of my earlier criticism of one of her shows?
Either it is overthinking on her part or outright cheapness.
JohnyML
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