artconcerns.com,oct2007

Pulsating Questions

Tangerine Art Gallery recently presented a group show of eminent and upcoming artists’ works on paper in Bangalore. Rollie Mukherjee and V.Divakar visit the show and raise a few questions regarding the images treated by the participating artists.

One of the changing phases in the art trend today is the preference for the conventional and cheap medium like paper. Relegated only as just part of an artist oeuvre during his study towards artist hood, the works on paper have slowly gained grounds in the art markets for its nearness and spontaneous aesthetic.

The exhibition titled “Pulsating Rhythm on paper” brought together some of the big brand names in the field and also some upcoming artists. What is the peculiarity of hosting a show like this? Is it just the medium of paper? Or the artists’ varied approaches towards the same? Are there other signs which could be gathered along side the medium alone?

Overall the concerns were visibly about the urbanity, modernity, war, environment, gender and uncertainty. The works of Alok Bal, Sanjeev Sonpimpare, T.V.Santosh, Mithu Sen, Riyas Komu react directly to the happenings in the immediate surroundings. Pradeep Mishra, Manjunath Kamath, Nikita Parikh and so on try to create alternative existential spaces of their own, where the structures are picked or referred to but rearranged allowing oneself to dwell upon without calamity and these works also offer a subtle critique.

Alok Bal’s long serious engagement with environment is efficiently worked out in a more sensitive language away from the earlier juxtapositions and simplistic allegories. The recent water colors have the potential imageries where the urbanity is a continuing dilemma rather than just a lament for the lost nostalgia of perfect nature. The bountiful and lush green flora and fauna is remembered through the lonely bird and the dried tree. The sun dial becomes the halo of the dried tree. Does it talk about the present where we are left only with the dried trees? What is natural now is then the dried tree! Can the usage of the dark colors read as the dark smoke smudged future waiting? Shall we see the peacock as the symbol of humanity’s pride? Or is it just the last remains of the endangered colorful life? Though the medium is water colour it remains opaque and doesn’t allow the space to be read beyond. Is it also symbolizing the opaque hopeless situation mankind is left with?

If those are his concerns of nature Nikilesh Baruah seems to still dwell upon the idea of nature as an escape. Braruha’s work looks Romantic and can been seen attempting to show existence in a precarious situation of trying to balance or ready to jump. The unmanned boat slides to a direction of its own; machine’s own destiny. The vast expanses of spaces can be seen as something which stands for what is not there. Hence there is an urge to create, to live within such expanse. There is a sense as Allen Carlson’s “all virgin nature ...is essentially good”. Pradeep’s rose plant can be read as a simple allegory of the surviving hope. If at all it’s a war ravaged land there still lay a sign for love and brotherhood. Also if it’s the artificiality of the grafted plant there still lay the hope of regeneration.

Manjunath Kamath’s surreal and poetic images talks about the transience and hollowness in existence. He tends to make simple associations which are not necessarily logical. Also is the intuitive usage positive and negative which is playful yet aesthetic. He shares some similar approaches as Yeswanth Desmukh.

A normative definition of art that centers a form concentrated through the elimination of non essential seems to be the concern of Deshmukh. Also the correlative approach towards the essential form with a common object of daily use is an important preoccupation. Is he doing the reverse process of the abstractionists? Mithu Sen’s imagery is minimal but strong in its dealing the issue of the gender. The consciousness of the female body and the violence inflicted to it is overtly expressed. Though expressionistic in language the medium of water colour is handled with utmost control like some Zen paintings where the flow is in accordance with the inner urge and expression. But unlike Zen paintings her water colours are aggressive. The materiality of the paint fascinates and horrifies at the same time. Such intimate spontaneous style creates a space in which the viewer contemplates not only the image but also to his or her relation to being.

Nikita Parikh creates designs out of traditional rangoli like motifs. Over the surface are layered the images of a bottle and other vegetative motifs. The traditional images of women seem to become themselves the package designs of the bottle. Does the title “sab bhoomi gopal ki” suggest something other than the general religious understanding? Interestingly though the title encompasses all the land to Gopal pictorially no ‘man’ finds a space. Is it a plot? The smudged charcoal over the decorative design also seems to stand for a life other than just ornamentation. Similarly Piyali Ghosh tries to create forms which are both human and animal in a peculiar landscape. Does the anthropomorphic form suggest a duality?

Pooja Iranna’s well executed water colours are very simple and interesting for the corners might be architectural or might be seen as structures themselves overlapping each other. Rathin Kanji and sanjeev deal the issue of urban life with its consumerist imposition and the problems insecurity. Zakkir Hussain’s water colors are casual and intimately worked out. There is a sense of oneness with the surrounding, life and existence. Riyaz komu seems to rather talk more about the medium than the surface speaking as subject/s. He leaves the work open ended by allowing the work to talk in a multiple ways. Is the noose, for the paper which is rolled, meaning the work is died and is set up in a coffin? Is it talking about the ultimate destination of the work? Is it a blatant critique on the gallery system? Or does it take its vocabulary from the recent popular political hangings?

One would also try to read the now ‘in vogue’ mediatic realism and its probable effects. Though in this age it is hard to escape the glamour of the media image artistically how much does it extend its creativity is a debatable question. Julia Kristeva in her “New Maladies of the Soul” 1993, has critically analyzed the collapsing of the psychic space in our culture. She says our dependence on media images is similar to that of antidepressants / psychotropic drugs which we take to ward off emptiness and depression in life. But instead of countering the problem we are losing the power of imagination and our psychic space has become as flat and depth less like media images which are surfacial. The argument posted here is not to speak against influence of media but can be seen as a lament of creativity due to its market oriented push.