State of the Art

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Posts by elisabettamarabotto

Subjects & Spaces, Women in Indian Photography

September 28, 2013

Ambika Rajgopal of Saffronart announces Tasveer Gallery’s exhibition ‘Subjects & Spaces, Women in Indian Photography’.

London: Tasveer Gallery in collaboration with Saffronart presents a photographic homage to the depiction of Indian women from the 1850s to the 1970s. Tasveer Gallery, since it’s opening in 2006, has been committed to promoting and exhibiting contemporary photography.

Portrait of the Actress Saira Banu, 1965. Image Credit: http://www.tasveerarts.com/group-shows/subjects-spaces/view-individual-images/?p=49

Portrait of the Actress Saira Banu, 1965. Image Credit: http://www.tasveerarts.com/group-shows/subjects-spaces/view-individual-images/?p=49

Carefully selected from the archives of the Tasveer Foundation, the exhibition features 65 photographs including studio portraits, film stills, post cards, cabinet cards and lobby cards. The anonymity of some women juxtaposed with the fame of some, forms a realistic depiction of womanhood in India. There are stills of dancing ‘nautch’ girls from the 19th century, private studio portraits of women with their families and splendid portraits of yesteryear 40s and 50s stars like Saira Banu and Nargis.

Thus begins a visual journey that transports us back to the evocative black and white era. Ted Grant once famously quoted: ‘when you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls.’ This dictum couldn’t hold more weight in relation to the photographs exhibited. The women sometimes boldly meet the gaze of the camera, and sometimes avert their look into one of wistful contemplation. In doing so, they offer a slice of social and cultural context of their own personal history.

With the advent of the film and photographic medium, the representation of Indian femininity underwent a radical transformation in the public sphere. The female representation, previously kept within the confines of homes and behind veils, now took a step forward and embraced colonial modernity. The female image fashioned itself within elaborate studio setups as well as within the print medium.

The curatorial strategy of the exhibition abandons chronology in favour of spatial placement of these women. Nathaniel Gaskell, curator of the exhibition notes: ‘Often such spaces — domestic, outdoor, shared or even abstract spaces — are very telling of how women were perceived.’ The exhibition also features an ethnographic account of the lives of women from different parts of India in different periods in time. From a visual depiction of women from the pre-colonial and colonial era, a diverse and vivid ethnographic map of society can be derived.

Member of the Moamuria or Muttuck Hill tribe from Assam, 1860. Image Credit: http://www.tasveerarts.com/group-shows/subjects-spaces/view-individual-images/?p=23

Member of the Moamuria or Muttuck Hill tribe from Assam, 1860. Image Credit: http://www.tasveerarts.com/group-shows/subjects-spaces/view-individual-images/?p=23

From the dichotomy of the domestic or performative spaces they were photographed in, to the diversity of their individual stances, each photograph was an exercise in feminine self-representation and told its own story. The exhibition manages to create a dialogic interaction between the viewer and the photographed subject.

This exhibition is also in partnership with Vacheron Constantin and Cinnamon.

The exhibition commences at the Saffronart Gallery in Prabhadevi, Mumbai on the 27th of September and goes on till the 5th of October 2013.

A limited edition boxed folio of prints from this exhibition is available online at StoryLTD.

For more information on the exhibition, visit the website.

Delhi Photo Festival 2013

September 26, 2013

Ipshita Sen of Saffronart shares a note about the upcoming Delhi Photo Festival 2013.

New York: Delhi-ites, save the dates in your calendars! The Delhi Photo Festival is right around the corner, enticing photographers, collectors and enthusiasts alike. With a week full of learning, showcasing new work, voicing young collectives as well as instigating interactions between artists and shutterbugs.

Delhi Photo Festival 2013 Poster. Image Credit: http://www.torgovnik.com/pages/getWorkshops

Delhi Photo Festival 2013 Poster. Image Credit: http://www.torgovnik.com/pages/getWorkshops

India Habitat Centre and Nazar Foundation initiated the biennale photography festival for the first time in 2011. It is curated by a creative team of photographers, namely, Prashant Panjiar, Dinesh Khanna and Dr. Alka Pande, the curator of Visual Art Gallery at the IHC. Acting as a catalyst, the festival popularizes the emergence of photography as the real democratic art form in a public space, thus making it a revolutionary step for photography in India.

‘The importance of gallerists, critics, curators, collectors, photo festivals & museums coming together to create a new and separate platform for photography’ states Dr. Alka Pande, on the festival.

Super Mamika, Sacha Goldberger. Image Credit: http://www.delhiphotofestival.com/delhi_photo_festival_2013/home.html

Super Mamika, Sacha Goldberger. Image Credit: http://www.delhiphotofestival.com/delhi_photo_festival_2013/home.html

As a tribute to the late Prabuddha Dasgupta, a noted fashion and fine art photographer, the 2013 festival will be centered on the theme of Grace. ‘I want to have a long string of images, held together by grace, because grace is that undefinable, non rational, non linear word that I am looking for’ said Prabuddha Dasgupta, speaking at the Delhi Photo Festival 2011.

Early Work, Prabuddha Das Gupta. Image Credit: http://www.delhiphotofestival.com/delhi_photo_festival_2013/home.html

Early Work, Prabuddha Das Gupta. Image Credit: http://www.delhiphotofestival.com/delhi_photo_festival_2013/home.html

The festival is not only confined to India Habitat Centre grounds, but several participating galleries across the capital. It thrives on a wealth of workshops, portfolio reviews, artists’ talks, and exhibition tours.

The festival is on from 27th September to the 11th October 2013.

For more information, click here.

Forerunner: An Ephemeral Transition

September 25, 2013

Shradha Ramesh reports on the show FORERUNNER at Chatterjee & Lal

Tandav III, 2012, Sahej Rajal

Tandav III, 2012, Sahej Rajal. Image credit: http://www.chatterjeeandlal.com/show-images-videos.php?LinkID=130

New York:  Sahej Rahal’s is prepped up for his second innings at Chatterjee & Lal gallery, Mumbai. We caught up with the artist last year, at the gallery, during his exhibit Bhramana II – a live performance art. It was a characterial confluence of art, history and mythical performance, to Rahal the elements of Bhramana II came together from varied sources. He said “The characters that inhabit these performances bare indices to different cultures, mythologies and pop culture.” While Bhramana I a sequel of Bhramana II, was a momentary performance act, his Tandav III is a photographic representation in a surreal setting.

Bhramana III, 2013, Sahej Rahal

Bhramana III, 2013, Sahej Rahal. Image Credit: http://www.chatterjeeandlal.com/show-images-videos.php?LinkID=130

A versatile artist Sahej Rahal converts everything around him into a creative exploration. He is known to intersperse reality with illusion. Having trained under Tejal Shah, Nikhil Chopra, Shumona Goel and Sophie Ernst his works are an amalgamation, of their teachings and techniques ranging from sculpture, video art and performing art. He has collaborated and worked at International forums, both in India and abroad. A short stint at Zurich residential program he created sculptures and installation with reference to war.

The Groom, 2011, Sahej Rahal

The Groom, 2011, Sahej Rahal. Image Credit: http://www.chatterjeeandlal.com/show-images-videos.php?LinkID=130

A visual milieu, Sahej Rahal’s artworks are cryptic evolution of various fictional and real time heroes. Being a hard-core Star Wars fan, one is lost in his monastic ‘Jedi’ like forms taking the center stage in his pictorial representation. He was influenced by Joseph Beuys a German, a Happening and performance artist, during his creation of Bhramana series, he said “I was going back to look at the things Beuys was looking at, the idea of the shaman as the storyteller, and looking at the art making process as a kind of alchemy.”

Threading the path of creating a surreal character in a real life urban ambience, Sahej Rahal has a child like euphoric reaction to every object he comes across. To Rahal found objects play a critical role in his creations, a bath tub was an integral part of his video creation as was the didgeridoo instrument in his Bhramana II performance art.  In the two minute film a monk like character has a bath in a mundane bath tub in a surreal ritual. He fascinated by war, rituals, ceremonial processes and myths. He is an artist with full of zeal and gives it all to his art he says “I just pick the coolest things I come across… it’s a lot of fun.”

Sahej Rahal’s current exhibit, Forerunner transpires from these diverse experience and explorations. A series of photography, video documentary and sculptures the show is a visual maze. One gets enamoured by the other worldly creatures and the dynamism.

Forerunner is on display at Chatterjee & Lal gallery, Mumbai until 28 September 2013.

To Read More Click Here.

Nalini Malani: Beyond Print- Memory, Transference, Montage

September 24, 2013

Ambika Rajgopal of Saffronart shares a note on Nalini Malani’s upcoming exhibition in Belgium

London: The Belgian museum Centre de la Gravure et de l’Image imprimée will host the first ever exhibition of the Indian artist Nalini Malani in the country as part of Europalia. It is the first time that an exhibition links the artist’s installation work to her printed work.

Memory, 2009, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/217399

Memory, 2009, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/217399

Malani’s oeuvre has long since explored the aftermath that the India- Pakistan partition has had on individual sensibilities. Herself, a refugee of the partition, through her work Malani denounces the rampant violence against women, which proliferated during the partition time. Though her characters are often derived from myths, the language she incorporates and the stories she tells are contemporary.

The Duck, 2002, Nalini Malani, Lot 23, Saffronart Autumn Art Auction. Image Credit: http://www.saffronart.com/auctions/DurWork.aspx?l=9015

The Duck, 2002, Nalini Malani, Lot 23, Saffronart Autumn Art Auction. Image Credit: http://www.saffronart.com/auctions/DurWork.aspx?l=9015

The mythical characters of Cassandra, Medea, Sita and Alice play a recurrent role in Malani’s work. She borrows the Greek tragic character of Medea and contemporizes it so as to infuse her own personal history into it. Through the character of Medea, she links the exploitation of women to the history of colonialism, where in Medea represents the colonized and her husband Jason represents the colonizer.

Cassandra 30 panel polyptych, 2009, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/361985

Cassandra 30 panel polyptych, 2009, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.artslant.com/ny/works/show/361985

In a similar manner, Malani also manages to retell the tragedy of Cassandra- who was cursed by Apollo and lost her power of persuasion despite being able to prophesize accurately. Cassandra stands as a metaphor for the stifling of the female voice by male dominated society. This myth is at the core of many of the works featured at the exhibition.

In Search of Vanished Blood, 2012, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/observations-in-space-and-time/334166

In Search of Vanished Blood, 2012, Nalini Malani. Image Credit: http://www.stylepark.com/en/news/observations-in-space-and-time/334166

The work ‘In Search of Vanished Blood’, first created for the Documenta at Kassel in 2012, has five painted, rotating Mylar cylinders, which project shadows on the wall. These cylinders are superimposed with projections from six video sources. The poem translated by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, which gives the work its title, can be heard recited by the artist in the background and imparts the work an imposing acoustic dimension. This work seeks to examine the social structure of the women in India, through the metaphor of different female characters from myths.

Despoiled Shore, 2005, Nalini Malani. Lot number 24. Saffronart Autumn Art Auction. Image Credit: http://www.saffronart.com/auctions/DurWork.aspx?l=9016

Despoiled Shore, 2005, Nalini Malani. Lot number 24. Saffronart Autumn Art Auction. Image Credit: http://www.saffronart.com/auctions/DurWork.aspx?l=9016

Even though she explores traditional morality plays, her work gravitates towards using an excessively new media, which imparts her work with a modern voice. Her work spills out of the pictorial surface so as to cover surrounding space by the inclusion of walls drawings, installations, shadow play, multi projection work and theatre.

Two of Malani’s works are being auctioned in Saffronart Autumn Art Auction on September 24 & 25 2013.

The exhibition commences on September 28th 2013 and carries on till January 5th 2014. For more information visit the website.

The Art World Mourns Over the Loss of a Great Indian Artist: Badri Narayan

September 24, 2013

Elisabetta Marabotto of Saffronart shares a note on the loss of a great artist: Badri Narayan

Badri Narayan, Kukkuta Jataka, 1987

Badri Narayan, Kukkuta Jataka, 1987. Image Credit: http://www.saffronart.com/auctions/PostWork.aspx?l=8506

“Narration comes to me naturally, I have been fond of telling stories since my childhood.”

London: In the early hours of Monday morning, Badri Narayan passed away in a hospital in Bangalore at the age of 84.

Narayan had a successful career not only as an artist and illustrator but also as an art teacher.

The artist is mostly known for his narrative and symbolic paintings. He drew heavily from Indian mythology and metaphors and acknowledged the influence of the Indian miniature tradition in his works. The artist believed in the two-dimensionality of painting, and preferred to work in a smaller format; one that he found practical and well suited for the watercolours that have been his preferred medium for several years. Narayan had also worked with etchings, woodcuts and ceramics and illustrated some children’s books.

Narayan exhibited his works for the first time at the Hyderabad Art Society in 1954 and since then he had more than 50 solo shows.

His creativity will definitely be missed.