Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Niyeti Chadha Kannal, Prajjwal Choudhury, Shweta Bhattad, Siddhartha Kararwal, Sudipta Das
Booth #
A2
INDIA ART FAIR
JAN 3 1 - FEB 2 2014
SPECIAL PROJECTS
VIDEO PROJECT : CONTESTED SPACES Claudia Joskowicz, Kartik Sood, Morgan Wong, Rodrigo Braga,
Sebastian Diaz Morales, Sherman Ong, Taus Makhacheva, Tintin Wulia, Tony Chakar, Wael Shawky and Zafer Topaloglu
ANUPAM SUD
1944, Hoshiarpur Punjab
THE TOUCH
Born in Hoshiarpur in Punjab in 1944, Anupam Sud did her diploma in Fine Arts from the College of Art, New Delhi in 1967 where she specialized in Printmaking. With a British Council scholarship she studied printmaking at the Slade School of Art, London (1971-72). Her recent shows include 'Convergence' at The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, USA (2013); Pipe Dreams, presented by Art Cinnamon and Latitude 28 in Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre (2012); India Art Summit, 2011, represented by Latitude 28, New Delhi (2011). Her recent solo was 'Preparatory Assertions - Notes from Sketch Books', Latitude 28, New Delhi (2011); Anupam Sud: A Retrospective, Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi, (2007); Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, (1997);. Exhibitions and fairs that she has been part of include 'Women's, International Exhibition', New York (1975); International Print Biennale, Ljubljana (1981, 83); Fifth Triennale - India, and in Switzerland; the Sixth Norwegian Print Biennale (1982); British Print Biennale, Bradford (1985); 'Printmaking in India since 1850, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (1986); the Eight International Print Biennale, Berlin (1987); International Print Biennale, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal (1995). She curated the 'Mini Print '96' show on behalf of Gallery Espace, New Delhi. Anupam has won 19 awards between 1969 and1985 including the Sahitya Kala Parishad award, 1980-84; a Certificate at Egyptian International Print Biennale, 1994; the President of Indias Silver plaque of 65th and 66th All India Annual Art exhibition, All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society, Special award, New Delhi,1995; International Print Biennale, Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal, 1995. Her works are in many private collections including NGMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. She lives and works in New Delhi.
Anupam Sud is one of the finest printmakers among the new generation of artists in India. A large part of the charm of her intaglio and mixed media works lies in her treatment of chiaroscuro. She has also taken up painting on large canvases, mostly in acrylic, watercolours and mixed media works on paper. Her firmly drawn figuration of men and women draw our attention to the general human situation and to psychological tensions between man and woman and between the individual and society. Most prominently, her works deal with women and femininity, something that as a woman, the artist is comfortable working with from an experiential level. Without necessarily delving into the politics of feminism, these works treat women as humanist subjects, while remaining sensitive to their issues and concerns.
Niyeti is a post-graduate student of Printmaking (at MSU, Baroda) and the recipient of scholarships at the School of Visual Art, New York (2010), Manhattan Graphics Centre, New York (2006), Inlaks Fine Art Award, Inlaks Foundation, India (2005). Her solo exhibitions include A Script for a Landscape at Queens Museum of Art, New York in 2011; Recent Drawings - Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, India (2007); Exhibition of Drawings at Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, India (2005). Niyetis group shows include Reconstructing (White)3, curated by Himali Singh Soin, The Loft at Lower Parel, Mumbai;In You is the Illusion of Each Day, curated by Maya Kovskaya at Latitude 28 (2011); Black and White in the Horizon, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, & Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S University, Baroda, India (2011); Nine Her Magic Square curated by Veerangana Solanki, Viewing Room, Mumbai (2010); Transforming Technology - Philagrafhika, Philadelphia (2010); Size Mattersor Does It? II, curated by Bhavna Kakar at Latitude 28, New Delhi (2010); A Delicate Point, Osilas Gallery, NY (2010); White Lies, Bombay Art Gallery, Mumbai, India (2008); Trends & Trivia an Indian Story, Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong (2008); Erasing Borders- Indian Artists in the Diaspora, Queens Museum of Art, The Guild Art Gallery, New York (2007); Does Size Matter? I, curated by Bhavna Kakar, New Delhi, India (2006). Niyeti showcased her works at the United Art Fair, curated by Meera Menezes, 2013, New Delhi and India Art Fair 2012 at the Latitude 28 booth. The artist lives and works between India and New York.
Rendering simple images in black and gray on white, Niyeti Chaddha Kannal explores the possibility of objects beyond their material physicalityShe deconstructs the image into its component formal properties, distilling the most elusive, ghostly traces of what she imagines to be its spatialised being. Rather than representing the absent object, the works play on the structural presence of the object that she transforms with both her gaze and the move of mind that re-envisions it in this new form. In doing so, she meditates on the embodied relationship between presence and absence, seeing and knowing, as well as abstraction and representation. Excerpt from text by Maya Kvskaya, PhD
2
UNTITLED 1,2,3,4 12 x 12 inches | Collage, pen, watercolor & acrylic on museum board | 2012
SIDDHARTHA KARARWAL
B.1984
Siddhartha Kararwal was born in 1984. He completed his BVA and MVA in the discipline of Sculpture from MSU, Baroda in 2006 and 2009, respectively. The artists most recent solo show is Paper Tiger and Other Tales, presented by Diesel + Art (in collaboration with Latitude 28), Mumbai (2012). He has participated in group exhibitions, including Matter of Importance, Sakshi Gallery in collaboration with Latitude 28, (2013); Glitch Frame Lollipop at Latitude 28 (2012); The Matter Within: New Contemporary Art of India, the Yerba Buena Centre of Arts in San Francisco (2011); Beauty and the Beast, Mathieu Foss Gallery, Mumbai (2011); To Be Continued, the FICA group show, Volte Gallery, Mumbai (2011); Demould Fine Arts Faculty, Baroda (2011); Two Positions, Part II Seven Art Gallery, Delhi (2011); Urban Testimonies, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2010); Size MattersOr Does It?, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2010); Scratch, presented by Sakshi Gallery at Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi (2010); First Look, Project 88, Mumbai (2009); and Harvest 2010, Arushi Art, New Delhi. Siddhartha was represented by Latitude 28 at Art:Gwangju:12 and was also represented by Latitude 28 at India Art Fair 2013, Art Summit 2011, India Art Collective 2011, and Art Expo 2009. He was showcased at the Sculpture Park at India Art Fair 2012 (curated by Diana Campbell Creative India), as well as a Special Project at India Art Fair 2013 supported by Latitude 28. In 2012 Siddhartha was part of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. The artist currently lives and works in Baroda.
Siddhartha Kararwals massive sculptures, made from cunning materials that deceive their original identity, hold up a mirror to society, and in doing so, to the viewer. As the viewer chuckles at the sight of a giant chandelier made from brushes of diverse texture and size from the Chinese market, the work chuckles back at the viewer. It feeds on its own magnified scale, weighing fifty kilos, as if the illumination at the centre of the room only serves to darken the truth. The Baroque light glares with new glamour, such that our sense of the normal glares with parody. The flamboyant colours of Denture Venture seem to scream at the plastic consumerism of society and the decay of the same teeth that bite more than they can chew.
DENTURE VENTURE
Chandelier made out of brushes, 132 x 60 x 60 inches | 2013
Born and brought up in Nagpur, where she currently resides, Shweta did her bachelors in sculpture from her hometown and her masters in Sculpture from M.S.U Baroda. She had a solo show, Wax Magic, SCZCC, Nagpur, India (2005). Her works have been exhibited in many group shows including 'And the Falchion Passed through his Neck...', curated by Jasmine Wahi, Latitude 28, (2012); Art Asia Miami Digital Show, curated by Jasmine Wahi, Miami (2012); 50th National Exhibition of Art organized by Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, India (2008); 116th All India Annual Art Exhibition, organized by The Bombay Art Society, Mumbai (2008). Her performance Three Course Meal And The Dessert Of Vomit was part of the Khoj Residency 'In Context: Public.Art.Ecology - Food Edition 1' (2012) and 'Mapping Gender', curated by Susan Hapgood, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (2013). She was recently part of a residency in Bamboo Curtain Studio Taiwan supported by Khoj where she did a performance called Bharat Mata in Taiwan based on her struggle in conquering her fears as a woman in her own country. She has also been instrumental in organizing the Gram Art Residency in 2014 and will be part of the Vancouver Biennale Artist Residency Program in 2014.
SHWETA BHATTAD
B.1984 Nagpur
UNTITLED
Stainless steel, iron, video screen 26 x 27 x 6 inches Video & Performance details: Bharat Mata in Taiwan Performance from a residency at Bamboo Curtain Studio Taipei, Taiwan Video shot and edited by Cameron Hanson 2014
Shweta Bhattad has never restricted her oeuvre to a particular format or medium as she attaches more priority to the concept, thereupon deciding on the medium that would justify its
execution. Shweta has also worked across disciplines with totally different approaches, though sculpture and performance figures most prominently in her work. They act as vehicles
for her work around significant art fair, with Latitude 28 also deals issues of women's education, with these issues that the artist women's safety - especially in her frequently engages with. work with victims of sexual abuse and student suicides. The wall sculpture she is exhibiting at the
MUHAMMAD ZEESHAN
B.1980 Mirpurkhas, Pakistan
Muhammad Zeeshan was born in Mirpurkhas, 1980, and has a BFA in Miniature Painting from National College of Arts, Lahore. His selected solo shows include Posternama at Latitude 28, New Delhi (2012) , New Works by Muhammad Zeeshan, Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi (2012); Special Siri Series, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA (2011); Recent Works of Dying Miniature, Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (2010); Dying Miniature, Green Cardamom, London, UK (2008); What Lies Beneath, Jehangir Nicholson Art Gallery, Mumbai, India (2008); Profane Illuminations, Aicon Gallery, New York, USA (2008); New Work by Muhammad Zeeshan, Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (2007); Sublime Maladies, Anant Art Gallery Delhi, India (2007) and Beyond Appearances, Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (2006). Selected recent group shows and fairs include Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space, A Green Cardamom Project, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC (2013); India Art Fair, represented by Latitude 28, (2013); Tactile, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2012); Beyond The Page, Pacific Asia Museum, curated by Hammad Nasr, Briget Bray and Anna Sloan, Pasadena (2010); Drawn from Life, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, UK (2010); Art HK, represented by Green Cardamom, (2008 2011); Art Dubai (2008-2011); Size Matters Or Does it? II, Jehangir Nicholson Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India, curated by Bhavna Kakar in 2007, Love/Hate, The Third Line Gallery, Dubai, curated by Nada Raza (2005). The artist lives and works in Lahore.
2013
Even while his background is firmly planted in miniatures, the years Muhammad Zeeshan moonlighted as a billboard painter strongly influences his subject matter. The artist marries these influences simultaneously to the technique of laser scoring, something he stumbled upon while in San Francisco. His controlled mastery over laser cutting allows him to use it to complement his line drawing, etching the same figures onto the support. While his oeuvre now includes video, collage, drawing, and installation, his hallmark is still his delicate attention to detail and an ability to execute fine line work. Horse and Zuljana, from the artists recent body of work is a meeting of the popular poster imagery in his home country, Pakistan with his technique of laser scoring and the aesthetics of miniatures.
KARTIK SOOD
B.1986
Kartik Sood was born in 1986 and pursued his Bachelors in Painting from College of Art, New Delhi in 2008 and completed his Post-Graduation in Painting from Faculty of Fine of Fine Arts, MSU Baroda in 2010. His selected participations include Sacred/Scared, curated by Nancy Adajania, Latitude 28 (2014); Translucent Video Art Festival, curated by Kanchi Mehta, What about art? (2013); Matter of Importance, Sakshi gallery in collaboration with Latitude 28, Mumbai (2013); In You is the Illusion of Each Day, curated by Maya Kovskaya, Latitude 28 (2011); Urban Testimonies, Latitude 28 (2010); New Focus, organized by Sakshi Gallery at FTII, Pune (2010); and Scratch, curated by Swapan Seth Sakshi Gallery, (2010).He has also been represented by the Latitude 28 at Art Gwangju 2012, India Art Summit, 2011, and the India Art Fair 2012 and 2013, as well as the India Art Collective 2011 online fair. Kartik was represented at Dhaka Art Summit 2014 by Latitude 28. He is the recipient of The Inlaks Shivadasani Foundation/ Charles Wallace India Trust Award, 2014 and Emerging artist award, presented in collaboration with Pro Helvetia- Swiss Arts Council and FICA, 2013. He was the recipient of the Nasreen Mohammedi Scholarship at MSU Baroda. The artist currently lives and works between New Delhi and Baroda.
Every day I write, draw, shoot videos or record sounds. My artworks are stories developed from these diaries. Subtle in colour and painterly in approach. Autobiographical, inventive and dislocated. Sometimes the self dressed up as if on a stage. Like a collage of memories pulled together. (excerpt from the artists statement) Kartik Soods work at its heart is about telling stories. It is influenced by literature and the art of storytelling. He weaves them like an author first then like a visual artist. His current work, including the diptych Empty Pool Full of My Desire, is a part of a majormulti-projection audio-video piece and talks about desire and solitude - how an inner world seeps into the outer world as symbols to signify its force. His stories are about reality as he perceives it, but often they lose the essence of reality (just like reality does) and turn into fictitious tales. Stories are knit out of his interactions with people, from conversations silly and profound, from his surroundings, and from music and art. They start intuitively and grow organically.
Archival ink, gouache, pencil and water colour on archival paper, Diptych | 52 x 34 inches each | 2013
Prajjwal Choudhurys oeuvre attempts at projecting the issue of recycling using tongue-in-cheek, wry sense of humor. He gathers his inspiration from mundane objects such as matchboxes, which are part of the daily visual culture in India and engineers his thought-provoking works around it. Defying the miniscule nature of this object, Choudhury treats them with an innovative dynamism and transfers on them images of iconic artworks including works by Andy Warhol, Picasso, Damien Hirst, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, Subodh Gupta and Atul Dodiya amongst others.
Detail Offset print on handmade matchboxes
PRAJJWAL CHOUDHURY
B.1980
Prajjwal Choudhury was born in 1980, and graduated with a BVA in Painting from the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata in 2003 and went on to complete his MVA in Printmaking from MSU Baroda in 2006. His works have been shown in a solo exhibition titled Drift at Project 88, Mumbai (2008). Selected group exhibitions include Square is just a Shape, Art Cinnamon, Hong Kong (2013); Slipping through the Cracks, curated by Meera Menezes, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2012); Art:Gwangju:12, Latitude 28 booth (2012); Continuum: Encapsulating Contemporary Indian Art by Latitude 28 and Art Cinnamon, Singapore (2011); The Annual Show: Two Years of Latitude 28, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2012); Other Anecdotes, curated by Ruchikas Art Gallery and Niyatee Shindee, Space@SCION, Los Angeles (2011); Notes on (Dis)appearance of the Real, curated by M. Vari & A. Lodaya, Stainless Steel Art Gallery, New Delhi (2010); Digifesta, Speed of Earth - Media Art Festival, Gwangju Biennale Hall, South Korea (2010); India Awakens, Under the Banyan Tree, curated by Dr. Alka Pande, Essl Museum, Vienna (2010); Re-claim/Re-cite/Re-cycle curated by Bhavna Kakar, Bose Pacia, Kolkata (2009); and Re-claim/Re-cite/Re-cycle presented by Seven Art and Latitude 28, Travancore House, New Delhi (2009). He was represented at the India Art Fair (2011-2014) and at the Colombo Art Biennale 2014 and Dhaka Art Summit 2014 by Latitude 28. He is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, besides having participated in residencies internationally.
Confrontation of images with words is like that of the body with the soul, but when they enter into an eternal and sacred state of mind, they become the ultimate expression of life. Calligraphy is a subtle method, which I use to scratch my body and soul. It is neither a political nor a social comment but an investigation of Islamic philosophical and sacred art. Uncountable curved and straight lines dancing like a classical dancer draw our attention to the deepest visual experience of form, as is the idea in South Asian philosophy.
ALIF
Ink on paper 21.5 x 29.75 inches | 2013
The Purush & Prakriti are referred to as necessary companions for a harmonious co-existence according to our ancient philosophy. But even when one of them ceases to accompany the other, the other does not perish away in lonesome misery, rather continues to live nevertheless. Despite the inherent anthropomorphic need for intimacy we acclimatize our desires according to our situations. In such a scenario it is our ego/the self that gives us the endurance to fulfill the basic human need to survive. On one hand our heart is deperate for union and co-existence, on the other, it is silenced by a righteous self. The muddled imagery flashing on the screen is a signifier of the chaos that our mind experiences. They are not mere channels forecasting onscreen but are the signifier of an internal turmoil prevailing in oneself.
DEEPJYOTI KALITA
B.1982, Assam
Deepjyoti Kalita was born in 1982, Assam. He pursued his Bachelors and Masters in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda in 2008 and 2010 respectively. He has participated in several group shows including The Public Art Space: Urban Icons, curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki, India Art Festival (2013); The Baroda March, Coomaraswamy Hall, Mumbai (2012); Collective Metamophosis curated by Kapil Chopra, Nature Morte (2011); Urban Testimonies Latitude 28 (2010); Strands Come Together at the Strand Art Room, Colaba, Mumbai (2008); Once Upon a Time, Strand Art Room, Colaba, Mumbai (2008); Academic display at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (2007- 08). Kalita is the recipient of the Emerging Artist Award by Sarjan Art Gallery (2010), Gold medal for BVA (2008-09), Jeram Patel Award (2007- 08), Mahendra Pandya Award (2006- 07), Sankho Chaudhary Award (2005- 06). Deepjyotis works were showcased at The India Art Fair 2012-2014 and the Dhaka Art Summit 2014 by Latitude 28. The artist currently lives and works in Baroda.
My present work refers to a diasporic memory which pertains to the partition of Bengal, thus addressing issues of cultural displacement and political turmoil. I attempt to interrogate several socio-political histories through the mangled imageries. The physical act of defacing creates new identities. The Last Supper becomes the metaphor of an important historic event where I consciously replace the iconic characters with portraits of John Doe. Das deconstructs iconic signifiers of history in this work and transmits its fragments through a perceptual, subjective lens before allowing them to contribute to the baggage of history that penetrates our realities. History does not disappear in the face of the new, it comes to be reconstructed and lives on in the present and the future. Das reminds us that we endure the experience of the contemporary subjectively, while carrying with us the inheritance of a past that does not remain forgotten.
LAST SUPPER Paper, water color, coffee, ply wood, and wooden blocks| 66.25 x 35.25 x 4.25 inches(with frame)| 2013
SUDIPTA DAS
B. 1985 Assam
Sudipta Das was born in Assam, in 1985. She did her BFA and MFA in painting from Kala Bhavan, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan 2009 and 2011 respectively. She had a solo show, Break II at Gandhara Art Gallery in 2013. Recent group shows include Diver-Cities curated by Bhavna Kakar, Latitude 28, (2013); The Web of Water curated by Sandhya Gajjar, Artcore gallery Derby, UK (2013); Fluid curated by V Divakar, in Site, Baroda; Contested Terrain, Kochi, (2013); Art Virtual Real, curated by Georgina Maddox, Art Alive Gallery, (2012); Group show at Exhibit 320, curated by Ranjita Chaney (2012); Her work is Never Done Part II, curated by Bose Krishnamachari, BMB Art Gallery, Bombay (2010). She participated in Kanoria Residency (2011); Saavad Residency, Santiniketan for 6 months (2011). She has also received various Merit Scholarships from Visva Bharati and the Government of India. She currently has a studio in Baroda Space Studio.
B.1978
Born in 1978, Dilip Chobisa completed his BVA and MVA in Sculpture at the M.S. University, Baroda in 2002 and 2004 respectively. The artist presented solo exhibition, represented by Latitude 28 at the India Art Fair, 2012 and had another solo show Silent Celebration, Anant Art Gallery (2010). His group shows and fairs include the Dhaka Art Summit 2014, represented by Latitude 28; Diver|Cities I Asian Contemporary Art, by Latitude 28 and Art Cinnamon, Singapore (2012); Fragile, Paradox and 1x1 Gallery, Singapore (2012); Art Gwangju, represented by Latitude 28 (2012); Art Chennai, represented by Latitude 28 (2012); In You is the Illusion of Each Day, curated by Maya Kvskaya, Latitude 28 (2011); Commonwealth Games Exhibition, New Delhi (2010); Silent City, Aicon Gallery, London (2010); Size Matters or Does it?, Latitude 28, New Delhi (2010); Immersions, curated by Deeksha Nath, Anant Gallery, New Delhi (2009); Keep Drawing, Gallery Espace, New Delhi (2009); SLICK 2008, Aicon Art Gallery, London (2008); Urgent: 10ml of Contemporary Needed presented by FICA, New Delhi (2008). Instilling Life, Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai (2007); and Keep Drawing, Pundole Art Gallery, Mumbai (2007). Chobisa was awarded Emerging Artist of the Year by Harmony Foundation Award, Mumbai in 2008. The artist lives and works in Baroda.
DILIP CHOBISA
NOSTALGIA 1,2
5 x 5 feet| Graphite on paper, digital print on canvas, silk screen, thread, mixed media, painted wooden frame and acrylic glass | 2014
SCULPTING SPACE: PERCEPTUAL MULTISTABILITY AND SPATIAL PROTAGONISM IN THE WORK OF DILIP CHOBISA
by Maya Kvskaya, PhD Dilip Chobisas oeuvre invokes a set of reflections on spatiality, its nature and subsequent effect on our preconceived notions of space. While space is often treated as a setting, in Chobisas work, space in unexpectedly transfigured into protagonist. Constructed through various angles, perspectives and composed by figures, shadows and depths, space is presented in dialogue with lines and shapes to produce a visual field of perceptual multistablity. The concept of perceptual multistability has a venerable usage in the analysis of both visual arts and cognitive science, as well as in the study of optical illusions. Its most referenced usage has been in connection with the works of Dutch lithographer M.C. Escher. Perceptual multistability occurs when structures, patterns and designs attain a level of ambiguity such that it is difficult to view them as static and mono-vocal, i.e. subject to single, unique interpretive frameworks. In Chobisas work, we can clearly see the ways in which a persistent pattern of perceptual multistability operates when one object is shown in relation to another, thereby creating the illusory sense of depth that is noticeable in many of Chobisas works. In fact, ironically and notably, it is not actual depth but visual interferences with our ability to perceive depth that trigger the inversion of what are called depth values and thus play with our vision. For example, the contrast and juxtaposition of a wall or a room depicted in relation to another wall or room shown in the work adds to a complexity of perception as our gaze shifts from one end of the work to another and from one focal point to another. Think of the room of interlocking, never-ending staircases in Eschers work as an example. Yet while the Dutch great masters work turned on perspective, Chobisas work dialogues with the visual experience of space. Thus, in Chobisas study of spatiality, it is specifically depth that is visually presented to create a variety of interpretations. Distorting the static nature of space, suggestions of movement are expressed through the angles, shades and shadows of shapes and figures that frequently appear in Chobisas work, such as walls, windows, corners and other such architectural objects/structures. The resulting optical illusion transfers to the viewer an illusory sense of depth from objects that are presented in a two-dimensional format, yet appear as though they were three-dimensional. In each of these works, new visual evocations can be formed as one looks at them closely, and again as one gazes askance. Given the inversion of depth values in relation to the spaces depicted, the perceptual multistability that is created by the movement of the eyes as we observe these works opens us up to the subjectification of spatial perception. The meditations on space through subjectivity redefine spatiality in relationship to the way it is experienced by the viewer. But this is not to imply that space is simply a passive vector of the viewers subjective gaze. Indeed the opposite is so, for it is precisely the way in which depth values are inverted and space is destabilised within the work that accounts for the how perceptual multistability works. Space (as constituted by the artist through this visual sleight of hand) becomes the protagonist of these destabilised, subjective and multiple visual experiences. For example, while gazing at Chobisas works (most of which are Untitled), this distorted sense of depth is stimulated visually by the interplay between space in its various manifestations in the works: rooms that open into other (deeper) rooms, windows that lead to an unending void, and shades that contain shadows that accentuate perspective. The visual realm presented in Chobisas work thus becomes a mirror for reflecting space that has been organized objectively by the artists use of optical illusion techniques, yet leaves its impression on our depth perception as it is stimulated anew through the interaction of our own subjectivity, the artists visual ruses and the resultant spatial protagonism that emerges. The protagonism of space that Chobisa engenders, then, enables viewers to arrive at a juxtaposed view of the works taken together as shifting sets of different, yet similar wholes, depending on the arrangement and order of viewing. Different spaces brought into being by the relationship among walls, windows and open passages allow us to put them in contrast with one another as our point of view shifts from one perception of space to another. In these works, the subtle becomes prominent as space acquires shape and presence, and becomes a focal point through the inversion of depth values, as we perceive it in its various manifestations. In some instances, it is a solitary window leading to an unknown void, or a chequered floor reflected in and through the glass, while in others it is angular shadows reflected in different directions from walls that meet at corners that point to an above and below, that turn the composition of Chobisas works into a relational play from which spatial protagonism emerges. In short, all the other elements in the work exist and interact as subordinate to (even as they are also necessary to) the constitution of in between spaces that emerge from their juxtapositioning. In this way, the contrast and interplay between encompassed and enclosed indoor spaces that elaborate openings in the form of quadrangular shapes, on the one hand, and prominent windows that lead to the representation of voids or unending open spaces, on the other hand, work together to create a sense of dissonance and vertigo that makes us re- experience space through these works in which space itself (and spatiality as a condition, more generally) becomes the star of the show. While Chobisas spaces that are often depicted as enclosed indoor settings, they transmit a sense of openness. Indeed, to engage Chobisas works is to travel within their inverted depths; to find movement in stillness and the appearance of three-dimensional objects within two-dimensional representations. The enclosure and demarcation of space through representations of geometric architectural structures (such as walls, doors, windows, floors and ceilings) recalibrates our multiple and differential experiences of space as protagonist through time-honored devices that product perceptual multistability, making the artist as much as sculptor of space working outside the boxes of ordinary perception, as he is an artist working within the frame of commonplace dimensionality.
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
Self Portrait Performance - used garden tools, wet French clay and myself, Print on archival paper, 41 x 97 inches 2013
Contested Spaces
Curated by
SCREENINGS 30th January 31st January 1st February 3:00 pm 5:00 pm 1:00 pm 8:00 pm 3:00 pm 8:00 pm
Bhavna Kakar
LATITUDE 28s commitment to experimental art practices in its geographical location has resulted in a video art project called Contested Spaces curated by Bhavna Kakar at the India Art Fair 2014. The inquiries and concerns of the artists showcased here hope to penetrate fragments of contemporary realities in the way they manifest themselves in our turbulent times. These works variously reflect upon current socio-political, economic and personal crises in the way they linger in intimate experiences of the everyday. This project is a reflection of the gradual melting away of the duality of global verses local, laying the foundation for an eclectic and an all-embracing culture worldwide. Featuring Claudia Joskowicz, Kartik Sood, Morgan Wong, Rodrigo Braga, Sebastian Diaz Morales, Sherman Ong, Taus Makhacheva, Tintin Wulia, Tony Chakar, Wael Shawky and Zafer Topaloglu.
CLAUDIA JOSKOWICZ
New York / Bolivia
Round and Round and Consumed by Fire (2009) Vallegrande, 1967 (2008) Drawn and Quartered (2007)
Claudia Joskowiczs works seek to reawaken violent events and their residue from Bolivian history. The three videos presented here form a trilogy of videos based on events in Bolivian history and their effect on the countrys mytho-historic landscape. Round and Round and Consumed by Fire is a reenactment of the shootout and subsequent death of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, nineteenth century American outlaws and leaders of the Hole-in-the-Wall gang. Vallegrande, 1967 reenacts the display of guerrilla combatant Che Guevaras corpse for the media after his assassination by the Bolivian army in La Higuera in 1967. Drawn and Quartered is a recreation of a diorama on permanent exhibition at the Museo Costumbrista in La Paz, Bolivia that depicts the execution of Tupac Katari, a leader in the rebellions of indigenous people in Bolivia who was executed by the Spanish colonialists in 1781. These videos highlight Bolivian history and the advent of Spanish colonialism and then neoliberal colonialism that have entangled Bolivia.
KARTIK SOOD
New Delhi / Baroda
Hong Kong
MORGAN WONG
Frustration of Having More than Two Choices to Make in Life (2013) Plus-Minus-Zero (2010)
Morgan Wong was born in Hong Kong and is currently based there. His works have been exhibited in museums and art spaces in Asia, America, Australia and Europe, including Tate Modern, UK (2010), Milan Triennale Design Museum (2011) and the Hong Kong Museum of Art (2008). In Plus-Minus-Zero when we see the artist walking backwards and anti-clockwise, in order to reverse time, and turn the clock back 56 minutes and 6 seconds, we can only reflect on the pointless attempt of traveling through time, and in the process bring closer Hong Kong and Sapporo, by vanishing the time difference between the two places. Frustration of Having More than Two Choices to Make in Life is a video work produced after and based on Wongs intensive meditative days of isolation from the world but only situating himself with a steel bar and a hand file in an empty space.
RODRIGO BRAGA
Brazil
Front (2010)
Front forms part of a series titled More Force Than Necessary (2010) that Braga created during a residency at the Flanders Field Museum in Ypres (Belgium). Front shows Sandbag Soldier, a recurring figure in Bragas videos, involved in a face off with another soldier until the moment Sandbag is forced to lower his gaze. He is faced with a virtual enemy who does not react. During the three minutes before he finally loses, the concentration he maintains allows us to see various expressions appear on his face like impatience, anger, disbelief or humiliation. This work connects to Rodrigos corpus of works, where the artist asserts his own body as a territory for the conflicts around the individual in the world, just as he is the skin simultaneously separating and promoting encounters in the fields of the intimate and the public.
Oracle (2009)
Sebastian Diazs videos wave between a passion for documentary investigation which comes partly from the spectacular nature of his homeland, Patagonia and an amazing talent for spontaneous narrative, which is both fantastical and steeped in utopian yearning. Oracle alternates a series of apparently random images that are not linked one to the other. They just follow on, like the tesserae in a mosaic that is still to be completed. The title seems to allude to the tradition of the Greek Oracle as a source of wisdom and prophecy, capable of offering a vision of the future through a combination of elements from the present. A plastic bag moved by the wind, a solitary man staring at the sea, and a solar eclipse are just some of the images that appear on the screen as propitiatory signs, and with which the audience can create their own free response writes Cecilia Alemani on his work.
Malaysia / Singapore
SHERMAN ONG
TAUS MAKHACHEVA
Taus Makhacheva has participated in a number of Russian and international exhibitions including the 4th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Baku, Azerbaijan (2009); History of Russian Video Art, Volume 3 at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2010) and the 4th Moscow Biennale (2011) among others. Bullet is based on an incident that occurred in the artists hometown of Makhachkala where three policemen were shot dead near her home while Makhacheva was on a flight home from Moscow. The work turned out to be reflection of this. She writes, what can this work be about, when shot in such context? I shoot into the sand with a Makarov, the service gun of the local police. As soon as I take the gun, I feel that it is an instrument. I ask my cameraman to move away, being scared that the bullet might ricochet. I shoot, blow-back, sound, crater in the sand. As I start digging I realise that the crater was only on the surface, so it is impossible to distinguish the trajectory of the bullet and I need to dig at random. By the time I find a bullet I have fired away almost the whole magazine. I leave a big hole behind. All the other bullets, which I couldnt find, stayed somewhere on the beach near the city of Makhachkala.
TINTIN WULIA
Indonesia / Australia
Fallen (2011)
Trained as a composer, architect and artist Tintins works reflect on the human condition of the geopolitical border within the imbalanced and unfinished processes of globalization, on universally relevant ideas of mobility and identity. Tintins works have been shown in major international exhibitions like the Istanbul Biennial, Yokohama Triennial, Moscow Biennale, Jakarta Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Asia Pacific Triennial and the Sharjah Biennale, among others. Fallen is part of the body of works on border and chance. It is neither documentation nor a documentary, although it was based on a somewhat real event. Following the path of skepticism that the real event was based on, the documentation is dramatized: it is heavily edited, and lightly presented with enchanting music. The video plays in an eternal loop, and it is the impossibility of charting a sequence of events, for the viewer who might chance upon the video at any given point of time in its loop, that challenges ideas of what is time and objective realities. The sequence of images and sounds gradually builds into becoming a solid conceptual object that leaves the space where it originates, and occupies another space that is more than four-dimensional.
Lebanon
TONY CHAKAR
WAEL SHAWKY
Egypt
Turkey / Rotterdam
ZAFER TOPALOGLU
A LEXICON OF WHAT ITS ABOUT AND WHAT ITS NOT Ambivalence The title of this exhibition encodes a moment of typographical uncertainty. If you were to type the word sacred, the computer often auto-corrects it to scared. Is this an accident or is it symptomatic of a deep anxiety and debilitating ambivalence of our times? In liberal circles, and especially in the art field, the sacred is regarded with a measure of healthy scepticism and bracketed within forbidding connotations. Often, it is relegated to the domain of ancient or traditional art, where it can be domesticated within a tradition of pedagogy and interpretation. Or then, it is seen as a source of inspiration for certain kinds of abstractionist tendencies within the regional modernism that developed in this country between the 1950s and the 1980s; here, too, the sacred can be tamed within the discourse of a self-reflexive modernism appropriating impulses from the past into its dynamic present. Organized Religion Most typically, the sacred is reductively identified with the dogmas of organized religion. In this vein it can also, and misleadingly, be conflated with an aggressive revanchist ideology based on the politicization of religious identity. The justified antipathy that the liberal and secular intelligentsia, artists among them, harbour towards such an ideology with its attendant threats of violence, censorship and an authoritarian world-view that suppresses diversity can all too often translate as a thoroughgoing rejection of the sacred. Resistance However, the sacred continues to resist all such categorizations. It cannot be reduced to dogma or conflated with an ideology of politicised religiosity. This exhibition addresses the rhetorical, ludic and performative strategies through which artists have accounted for the sacred as it leaks into the world, and the social, cultural, political and psychic domains that it inhabits. This
exhibition embraces the various and sometimes contradictory gestures by which the sacred may be approached. It is phrased as an inquiry, and raises questions that are not asked for fear that one may be misunderstood, or for reasons of self-censorship. It investigates the substrata of a condition that is both elusive and present; that is claimed by numerous public manifestations yet remains intimate, unclaimable, pluriform. Memory I have gathered together a varied typology of materials here, ranging from paintings, photographs, films and videos, through mixed-media works and sculpture, to childrens drawings. Discreet reproductions, incorporated into the flow of the exhibition as pedagogic annotations, are intended to prompt the viewer into an awareness of the unacknowledged histories of Indo-Iberian modernism (Angelo da Fonseca) or the epiphanic re-reading of a contemporary work that appears to have settled into a stable interpretation of the artists work (Sudhir Patwardhan). Colloquies with the Icon The icon is the most readily available and widely accessible interface with the sacred. And yet, given its location within a body of rituals and a system of ceremonial, the icon can paradoxically become remote from the world of affect that the worshipper inhabits. N Pushpamala, Angelo da Fonseca and Veer Munshi approach the icon from distinctive ideological commitments, but all of them hold colloquy with the icon. They reclaim the icon for the world of affect and criticality, for the circulations of human tribulation and exaltation, using humour, wisdom, wit and emotional tenderness. Exorcising Phantoms The sacred can manifest itself through troubling, repressed fragments that refuse to be assimilated into a coherent narrative of selfhood. The phantoms of the sacred can generate anxiety, vertigo, delirium and terror. They threaten the self s stability and consistency; they prompt a questioning of religious and ethnic foundation myths; they decoy the self into pursuing them in various
Pushpamala N (And Clare Arni), Our Lady of Velankanni, Type C-Print on Metallic Paper, 20 x 24 inches, 2000-2004 Angelo da Fonseca (1902-1967), Flight to Egypt, Watercolour on paper, 12 x 16 inches, 1959, Image courtesy Xavier Centre of Historical Research (XCHR)
directions. Tyeb Mehta, Tushar Joag and Gargi Raina conduct courageous inquiries into the pivotal role that the phantoms of the sacred play in Indias charged social and political climate, where communities that have lived together in peace for generations can be manipulated at shockingly short notice into annihilating one another. Sensing Allegory Allegory is narrative travelling in disguise, in camouflage. Its surface lends itself to reading while its depths are hidden by encryption; but often, the key to the code is left lying in plain sight. Sudhir Patwardhans paintings evoke the life of the small town or shanty, coping with the crises of late-industrial society. Looking closely, however, we are sometimes intrigued, then amazed to find that his protagonists might engage one another in the manner of figures in a Gothic altarpiece or a painting from the Northern Renaissance, and their local gestures and costumes conceal scenes from the life of Christ. Without warning, the viewer will find that a dystopian late-industrial townscape yields up a parable about hope lost, redemption deferred, and people driven into a spiritual wilderness. Jehangir Jani works with fragmentary, episodic elements of Arabic calligraphy and the symbols of Shia history, allusively indicating the liminal state that the secularized artist occupies, between what he calls the architecture of belief and the grammar of abstraction. Afterlife The afterlife is a vital element of the sacred. A tradition of philosophical inquiry might migrate from the circles of debate in which it arose, and find habitation on alien shores. A saint-poets presence may continue after her physical extinction, in the form of a circulating corpus of poems carried into the future by the voices of disciples, so that the presence becomes the voice, relayed, echoing, memorized, found again in translation. And in funerary art, whether the Pharaonic tombs or the Faiyum portraits, the afterlife is that fascinating awareness of the strength, beauty and energy of those who are no longer living, encountered through memorial gestures. Prajakta Palavs additive social project which is a new departure from the painterly practice for which she is known crystallises around the poems of the saint-poet Bahinabai, which she shares with school children, eliciting their responses through the drawn and painted image. Kartik
Soods paintings act like prayers for the dead: even as their bodies return to the elements, the memory of all that inspired them is embodied through lyrical evocation. Strange and Sublime Addresses The body is a costume for states of transformation; Sahej Rahal, acting in shamanic mode, tempts an unidentified totem creature or spirit animal to break the cover of civility mandated by social life. Rohini Devasher, drawing on the astronomers expertise, invokes what Walter Benjamin described as the aura, the simultaneity of intimacy and distance, through her mythic, abstract topographies. Gigi Scaria dedicates himself to the earths last uninhabited expanses, or to landscapes violated by industry, where the human being can only be a survivor, a recipient of visions of the vastness yet also the fragility of the universe. In such avatars does the ecological Sublime, the post-industrial Sublime manifest itself, exposing the viewer to heightened conditions of strangeness, disorientation and terror. This exhibition proposes that the sacred is not a pre-ordained and pre-shaped entity. It is an auratic, liminal condition, a tantalizing horizon and a place where you find yourself without looking for it. * [An extract from the curatorial essay by Nancy Adajania]
(above) Tyeb Mehta , Koodal, Film, 1970, Produced by Films Division (below) Tushar Joag, 3 Bullets for Gandhi, Single channel video, 5 min 2 sec, 2007
L: Detail of Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516): sculpted parts by Niclaus of Haguenau and paintings by Matthias Grnewald R: Sudhir Patwardhan, Bylanes Saga, 2007
Achkan Cloth, polyurethane, acrylic paint 3 x 2.5 x 2.5 ft, 2013 Courtesy: Chatterjee & Lal
SAHEJ RAHAL
PRAJAKTA PALAV
Flight to Egypt Water colour on paper, 12 x 16 inches, 1959 Courtesy: Xavier Centre of Historical Research
ANGELO DA FONSECA
Excavating the Mirror Neuron (Ayeneh-Kari) Mixed media on Arches paper, 36 x 59 inches, 2013
GARGI RAINA
Cover.indd 1
GIGI SCARIA
JEHANGIR JANI
Love Never Dies a Natural Death Portraits - Oil, acrylic, paper pulp, ink on paper, on boards; Landscapes - Archival pigment and gouache on archival paper 8.5 x 11.3 inches each, 2013
KARTIK SOOD
SUDHIR PATWARDHAN
TUSHAR JOAG
TYEB MEHTA
Surveyor (04) Colour pencil on archival pigment print on Hahnemuhle museum etching paper Ed. Unique, 23 x 41 inches, 2013
ROHINI DEVASHER
Our Lady of Velankanni (After Contemporary Votive Images) From The Photo-Performance Project, 'Native Women of South India: Manners and Customs', Bangalore Type C-Print on Metallic paper Edition of 20, Set of 10, 20 x 24 inches 2000 - 2004
PUSHPAMALA N
VEER MUNSHI
048
Rs. 200
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