Better late than never. It is applicable in the case of
visiting an exhibition also. ‘Construct/Constructions’, a group exhibition of
thirty artists culled from the Kiran Nadar Museum collection and curated by the
in-house curator, Roobina Karode had in fact opened on 23rd April
this year. The show will run till 15th December. At the outset
itself I should say, it is a coming of age show, especially in the Indian
exhibition scenario where a show hardly runs more than two months. It is not
only a worth watch show but also a must watch show. Had it been in any other
country other than our own where people are killed for eating beef and writers,
historians, scientists and artists are giving back their awards to the
government and getting no response from it, this show would have been a
blockbuster one. Where the government should invest its attention in promoting
the contemporary culture to with its declared position of ‘vikas’ (development),
it despicably goes out and out to prove that we had test tube baby production
facilities and air travel facilities during the times of Ramayana and
Mahabharata. Anyway, that is not my point here.
If a show runs for eight months it should have some reasons.
First of all we have to agree that a show of this scale and content deserves
not just eight months but one years, but really it deserves a lot of
appreciation from people as well as from media. Whether the show has got it or
not is a different question altogether. Secondly, this should, so painstakingly
and meticulously put together could also function as a filler program. as it has
helped the museum to cross the severe summer months in Delhi. On a nice, cool
and pleasant October evening, if I am the only one person in the halls of the
Museum while milling populace throng at the discount sale malls of South Delhi,
next door, with one of the pioneer experimental art space, Khoj Artists
International, across the road, then there should be something wrong with all
of us. I say, we are the citizens of this country and we reflect the attitude
and policy of our ruling governments. I do not want to say that during the UPA
governments or the governments before them, things were bright and rosy when it
came to the attendance of a show. But I do want to say that so long as the
government say that godly depictions are better than the secular and nude ones
, and there could be government sponsored as well as private censorship on
works of art, I am sure that the number of people going to the galleries and
museum would further deplete. Museums and galleries are the litmus tests of
fascism. When people avoid the spaces of culture and throng at the city squares
and malls to listen to patriotic songs and enjoy censored menus, we could say
that fascism is here and now.
(Roobina Karode, curator)
‘Construct/Constructions’ is a beautiful concept. It talks
about the mental constructs that the artists create out of the material
surroundings and their spiritual mediations of it. Also it is about
constructions that are in our physical and ideological surroundings. Art cannot
be out of these two constant processes that come on the mental interface of
creativity. In that sense each work in this show plays a very pivotal role and
exemplifies how an artist deals with his or her present as well as the things
and ideas that construct their present. Though these works of art come from
different time frames, that means from the younger days of Raza, Souza,
Vishwanathan, Davierwala, Zarina to the really young people like Masooma Syed,
Srinivas Prasad, Nandita Kumar and so on. The show has thirty artists and each
work has been given their iconic and monumental presence.
When there are thirty artists in a show it is very difficult
to do justice to each and every artist in a critical review. Hence I would say
that my review is my view and my priority that does not mean that the other
works and artists who do not get a mention here are less relevant therefore
unimportant. Hema Upadhyaya has created a slum that covers the earth in a box
form, with meticulously creating the slum clusters using the same materials
that are used in constructing the slums. When one stands inside the work, one
feels how crammed and suffocating would be the existence of the people who live
in these structures. However, what makes the work important and relevant for me
is the acknowledgement that an artist gives to the existence of slums. These
are the structures that the ruling class and the affluent would like to maintain
but keep away from the ken of perception. But the truth is that the more the
urban sprawls expand the more they will be covered like a fortress by the
slums. One has to understand that it is not the slums that automatically
mushroom but these urban developments engender the slums. They are the by
products of not only the physical development of the urban spaces but also the
products of an ideology that makes vertical and horizontal lines in segregating
people during the urban development. Hema’s work is a reminder within the urban
context that the more you make your dwellings plush and surroundings gentrified
and controlled, the more there will be a nomadic growth not only supporting but
also threatening the very existence of the urban spaces.
(work by Hema Upadhyaya)
The question here is where does one stand, as an artist, in
this discourse? In this criticality of affairs, the artist is like a person who
speaks against bottled water from multinational companies and forced to drink
it on a daily basis. Artists live in the imagined urban security but they are
aware of the issues pertaining to the development agenda of the governments.
That is exactly what Natraj Sharma does in his a little bit ambitious but at
bit crazy installation of a scaled down housing apartment done totally in
oxidized iron. The building looks like an abandoned and gloomy structure; you
see the kind of degeneration and decay that we see in the lower middle class
apartments, which slowly decay due to the lack of maintenance. Natraj’s work
also intends to show the litigations on land and buildings; it at the same time
reminds you of the buildings that remain after a bombing or blaze. Tallur
brings the colonial history of domination and the changes that brought about
the very concept of architecture and lifestyle with the introduction of roof
tiles. This large installation reminds the tragedy and comedy of the
confrontation between our tradition and modernity.
Gigi Scaria scores the maximum in the show with his ‘Elevator
from the Subcontinent’ (which had exhibited in the Indian pavilion of Venice
Biennale. This one looks like an altered version of it). Once you are inside
the lift, you are willingly undertaking a rollercoaster journey to both hell
and heaven. It takes you to the dizzying depths of urbanization; its cream and
the dreg. It reels your head and destabilizes your stance. If urbanization and
its fastened, secured and elevating version could make your head reel and make
you feel nauseous then what could be the effect of it in real time. We come to
feel that this is the nausea that we are living with. Nausea is a word related
to the existential discourse of the 1970s, when the western countries were
facing the issues of fast paced urbanisation. Gigi being aware of this
discourse has incorporated all what is involved in this existential discourse.
Also it is a climax of his former videos that had brought in multiple
narratives in the single frame, questioning the issues of illusion/reality and
myth/history. This work, when I was standing inside the life reminded me of the
riveting Video/film ‘Deep’ (2002) by Steve McQueen.
(work by Gigi Scaria)
Nandita Kumar’s work that captures a pastoral environment in
thin metallic silhouettes in a large jar with the natural voices of birds and
other creatures at once presents the nostalgic beauty of our romantic
environments and the bottled lives that we artificially live in these days of ‘development’.
This work could be a reminder to the world saying how foolish we are in
creating the safe havens but literally eliminating what is natural and
recreating all those to live ‘naturally’. On a lighter note I would say, if
S.Kovan could be arrested and charged with sedition for singing against Amma (Jayalalitha)
then artist Masooma Sayyed also should be booked on similar charges for she
sings against history using the paper covers of high end whiskey bottles. She
creates little tableaus taking historical figures from her country’s (Pakistan)
military and political history using the covers of the liquor bottles. The work
travels too far to reach the drinking habits of the military men and the irony
of using religion as their guiding principle. The work of Masooma reminds me of
a book titled ‘My Feudal Lord’ by Tehmina Durrani. It would be justifiable if I talk about the
work of Sumedh Rajendran in this same paragraph. He has been creating works
using iron and leather for a long time. In one of his poignant works here, he
creates the image of a large dove, the symbol of peace at the same time the
dweller of abandoned spaces. It is done in the form of a window grill with
broken glasses. Sumedh combines a personal memory with the work; he had seen
some street urchins pelting stones at an abandoned factory building and the breaking
of the window panes giving a great joy to the kids. Sumedh says that the
contained humidity of the factory sighed out and it was something that affected
him internally. These works carry multiple narratives on the urban realities.
Perhaps, a writer like me could go on for another two days writing about urban
realities based on the works of Sumedh Rajendran.
Sudarshan Shetty’s work is a wooden carpet with an obscure
human figure lying under it. Intricate in carving, this work presents a
problematic of the meeting points of urban modern and the traditional rural
binary in the context of development. There is a sense of exploitation in this
whole process. However, the labour comes to provide beauty to development is
intricately connected the way Sudarshan mixes porcelain with wood in the making
of traditional jars. But I wonder what is that lacking in these artists
including Sudarshan that prevents these artists from being as forceful as Ai
Weiwei. Is this the question of conviction, political belief or fear itself? Srinivasa
Prasad is in the line of Sudarshan. His work of a bamboo hut casting shadows
all over reminds me of a series of other works including the ones done by
Sudarshan earlier. But I give a chance of doubt to Srinivasa. He could do
better. Pooja Iranna’s works, constructs done with stapler pins looks pretty
but less impressive compared to the other works. Reason, the sense of scale. In
a group show in a gallery these works could make sense. But in a large scale
show it could be less impactful. Is it because of the cluttered spaces where
her works are exhibited? The curator should think about it.
(work by Masooma Sayyed)
Also the curator should think about why she included Yamini
Nayyar and Simran Gill in this show? May be Roobina has her own logic than they
also belong to the KNMA collection. May be she has another curatorial logic
which I do not understand. While Gulam Mohammed Sheikh’s Kavad is illustrative
of his personal belief in secularism, like all the William Darlymple books are
as exciting as his ‘Last Mughal’ or ‘City of Djinns’ all the works of Gulam
Mohammed Sheikhs are not that great. I understand at some point of time most of
the artists have done something about urbanisation as they are the creatures of
this world. However, there is something that makes the works of KGS, Raza,
Souza, Ram Kumar, Viswanathan and Davierwala stick out like sore thumbs. With
all due respect to these masters I would say, the curator could have considered
them in a different show. The only consolation I have here is that they are
exhibited in a separate segment. That itself is segregation. It happens when
the curator is slightly under pressure more than what she could accommodate in
her curatorial perspective. At the same time I thought that Nandita Kumar and
Anish Kapoor could have been put face to face to see the effect of it. Last but
not the least, why this stinginess when it comes to hand outs? KNMA is a very
rich organization. I do not say that any ‘non-mainstream’ critic like me b be
given a catalogue even for keep sake but he could be given a hand out, a small
booklet with the images and details for reference sake, for free. It helps, it helps a
lot.
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