Shradha Ramesh shares a note on the Pakistani artists showcased at this year’s Pulse Art Fair in New York.
New York: The 2013 Pulse Art Fair in New York, the thirteenth of its kind, exhibited an array of contemporary pieces from both established and new artists. This year, their South Asian collection included works by the Pakistani artists Adeela Suleman and Ambreen Butt.
Adeela Suleman, Untitled (The Boat), 2009, Pulse Art Fair 2013
Exhibited by the contemporary London and New York based Aicon Gallery were three pieces by Adeela Suleman. Suleman is known for her metal sculptural pieces which reflect her engagement with political and gender issues.
Ambreen Butt with Carroll and Son, I Am My Lost Diamond.
Ambreen Butt was exhibited in collaboration with Carroll and Son. Butt’s works are known to be inspired by unfortunate events in Pakistan. This work in particular was inspired by the 2010 bombings that occurred in Pakistan and is a small scale version of the original installation which consists of red coloured casts of fingers and toes.
Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart on Subodh Gupta’s exhibition at Hauser & Wirth and a talk by the artist at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London
“What does the vessel contain, that the river does not”, Subodh Gupta, 2012. Photo by Elisabetta Marabotto
London: Following its success at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Houser & Wirth, London, decided to showcase to an international audience Subodh Gupta’s installation “What does the vessel contain, that the river does not”.
Subodh Gupta found inspiration for this work in the words of the famous Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi:
“What does the vat contain that is not in the river?
What does the room encompass that is not in the city?
This world is the vat, and the heart the running stream,
This world the room, and the heart the city of wonders.”
In this poem, Rumi embeds among the lines the idea that the entire universe is contained in our soul. Gupta was touched by this concept, and chose to visually express Rumi’s words through an art installation that drew parallels between an individuals’s life and a boat.
The artist filled the vessel, a traditional fishing boat from Kerala, with common objects that he found in Kochi and Delhi, carefully piling them into the vessel. Chairs, beds, a bicycle, window frames, fishing nets and cooking pots are among the objects Gupta has used to represent our cluttered lives.
Detail of “What does the vessel contain, that the river does not”, Subodh Gupta, 2012. Photo by Elisabetta Marabotto
Through this work Gupta also raises questions about cultural dislocation, feelings of belonging and displacement, movement and stability, which are symbols of the current epoch. Hence the boat acquires both positive and negative connotations. The fact that the boat is displayed with one end raised up from the floor gives the impression that it is floating, and transmits positive energies. At the same time, however, walking underneath the raised boat generates feelings of anxiety and discomfort.
Passing underneath “What the vessel contain, that the river does not”, Subodh Gupta, 2012. Photo by Elisabetta Marabotto
Last Tuesday, in conjunction with the exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, the Courtauld Institute of Art in London hosted a panel discussion titled ‘The Routes of Success’, between Subodh Gupta, Jessica Morgan (the Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art, Tate Modern) and Deborah Swallow (Director of the Courtauld Institute of Art).
From left: Jessica Morgan, Deborah Swallow and Subodh Gupta at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Photo by Elisabetta Marabotto
The panel discussion was preceded by a presentation by an unexpectedly shy Subodh Gupta, who discussed his major works of which you find a selection between the text below.
After the presentation, a more confident and very entertaining Gupta had a very interesting exchange with Morgan and Swallow. The artist revealed his past as an aspiring actor, a career that was derailed once he started painting film posters. In fact, he only joined art school because he was convinced by his friends. And now he is one of the most acclaimed Indian contemporary artists in the world!
The scale of his artworks was also one of the topics tackled in the discussion. Although slightly shy on stage, Gupta is not shy at all in his artworks’ dimensions! The artist however stated that the creation of large artworks wasn’t premeditated; it just happened. And once it started it became a habit, and now he can’t stop it!
Gupta also discussed his love/hate relationship with painting. It is something he doesn’t feel confident about and that is one of the reasons why he often “secretly” embeds photography in his paintings. He said: “painting is hard to make, doing a good one is like reaching nirvana”!
The artist also added that he doesn’t intentionally make political art, but art comes from where you live, from what surrounds you, and so that is why politics and social issues cannot be taken away from it.
I would like to conclude with an interesting question/point of discussion that came up during the talk about whether it is always possible to transport art outside its country of origin. This was discussed in respect of Spirit Eater, one of Subodh Gupta’s latest works which is deeply embedded with cultural references and traditions which make it extremely difficult to be understood. The artist was reluctant about the idea of compulsorily bringing his art out of India, because sometimes it could be misunderstood and its original message lost.
I’ll leave you reflecting on this topic, and encourage you to visit Subodh Gupta’s exhibition in London. Click here for more information on the exhibition.
Emily Jane Cushing shares a note on the Shanti Panchal exhibition at Piano Nobile in London
London: Piano Nobile is currently hosting an exhibition of London-based artist Shanti Panchal’s work entitled ‘Paintings of Exile and Home’.
Shanti Panchal
North Gujarat born Panchal studied at the Sir J.J. School of Art in Bombay and moved to London in the late 1970s; this exhibition displays a variety of his contemporary portraiture.
Panchal’s paintings are often executed on a large scale, and use spaciously abstracted figures which often paradoxically aid to convey a sense of intimacy between the subjects. An example of this is in the work ‘Admiration’, portraying two lovers who stand independent of one another in the work, but evoke the connection they share through a sense of vulnerability and their desire for intimacy.
Panchal’s delicately applied fresco-like watercolours in strong tones depict a range of subjects in both a powerful and emotive manner. These subjects vary from gazing lovers in ‘Pillow Talk’, 2009, to a portrait of his three sons in ‘A Private Space’, 2007. The earthy palette used by Panchal in his work is influenced by the ‘very dry ochres and reds and browns’ of the isolated rural community landscape of his youth.
The works exhibited show influences from Jain and other miniature paintings, particularly in the strikingly large, dark eyes he often paints, in a stare focused beyond the confines of the frame. Panchal’s distinctive portrayal of the extended female hairline down to the eyebrows, symbolising a third eye, also introduces a symbolic spiritual dimension to the works.
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The exhibition will be on view at Piano Nobile from 15 May to 8 June, 2013
Browse the artist’s website for more information on his life and work
Emily Jane Cushing recommends a talk by artist, activist and curator Vivan Sundaram as part of the ‘Unpacking Global’ series by Asian Art Archive (AAA)
Hong Kong: This talk by Vivan Sundaram will take place on Friday 24 May at 11 am – 12 pm at ‘A Space’, 10/F, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.
For more information and to register for the talk, see the AAA website.
Manjari Sihare shares details of a forthcoming event at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris
Paris: The Clark House Initiative (Bombay) is currently presenting an exhibition at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris of three Indian art practitioners, Padmini Chettur, a contemporary dancer, Prajakta Potnis, a visual artist, and Zamthingla Ruivah, a master weaver. The works in the exhibition are in dialogue with those of a group of Indian artists who were living in Paris in May 1968, including Nalini Malani, Krishna Reddy and polymath artist and magician Jean Bhownagary.
Nalini Malani, “For the Dispossessed”, 1971 Image courtesy: Kadist Art Foundation, Paris
The Kadist Art Foundation and the Clark House Initiative have organized a series of public events around the exhibit, one of which is a conversation between Nalini Malani, political analyst Jyotsna Saksena, and art historian Elvan Zabuyan on Friday, 24 May at 7 pm. The talk will center around Malani’s time in Paris which she describes as a ‘prise de conscience’. She has lent to the exhibition a small papier mache head, ‘For the Dispossessed’ made in Paris in 1971 of the vivid pages of Le Nouvel Observateur, and referencing photographs of refugees fleeing the genocide during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The head also references what was happening in Paris at the time, demonstrations for Angela Davis, and protests of the Vietnam War.
Event details:
Friday 24 May, 7pm: Nalini Malani, Jyotsna Saksena, and Elvan Zabuyan in conversation at the Kadist Art Foundation, 19 bis-21 rue des Trois Frères, F-75018 Paris.
tél. +33 1 42 51 83 49 | www.kadist.org
