Friday, April 9, 2010

‘Bring me a Lion’ at Cecille R. Hunt Gallery

An ongoing exhibition of ‘Bring me a Lion’ at Cecille R. Hunt Gallery (St.Louis, USA) features Dhruvi Acharya, Chitra Ganesh, Tushar Joag, Rina Banerjee, Jaishri Abichandani, Yamini Nayar, Rakhi Peswani, Bari Kumar, Jitish Kallat and Reena Saini Kallat. Explaining the title, a curatorial note states:
“The emblem of the Republic of India is based on Ashoka’s Lion Capital. Placed atop a pillar to commemorate the Buddha’s first sermon, it displays four apposing majestic Asiatic Lions. They signify the great Emperor and also Gautama, the lion of the Sakya clan - combining both militarist might and the Buddha’s peaceful message of the Middle Way.

"The ancient mythological texts and tales are replete with stories of both the grandeur and foibles of lions like the powerful half-man/half-lion incarnation of Vishnu. Hence the lion is a fitting metaphor for the many sides of contemporary Indian art and culture. The latent idea of the show is to map the contours of the recent art practice of India to underline the theme. "

Curators Dana Turkovic and Jeffrey Hughes have conceptualized this significant exhibition. The gallery recently presented ‘Re(sound)’, an exhibit that explored the sonic medium through a compilation of musings by sound artists from across the world. A curatorial note elaborated:
“Over the past century, this art form has emerged by extracting from the worlds of visual art and music. Sound art’s foundation can be traced to the innovative work of Italian Futurism, Dadaism, and of composer and artist John Cage, as it gradually began to mature into a movement, artists further explored the interactive possibilities of sound and in turn created entirely new modes of experience and engagement."
Re(sound) built physically on the curious concept of the periphery by using one sensory input, and also offering an alternative metaphor to demonstrate that the idea of an art venue has become more like any invisible node, which is connected by digital networks via infinite tentacles.

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