Wednesday, August 25, 2010

An artist studio within gallery premises

New Delhi based Gallery Espace had had a special project of ‘setting up’ an artist studio within its premises. For a week, talented artist Manjunath Kamath drew on the walls of the gallery, thus converting it into a teeming temporary studio.

Depending on when a visitor would drop in, he or she would get to see the white walls taken over by his drawing. The artist had not prepared any rough sketches, or had had a grid to work from. His aim was simply to enjoy the whole wide-open space that large white walls offered him within the gallery. His work unfolded into something new every day. Revealing the beauty of this experience from a visitor’s perspective, Bharati Chaturvedi noted in an essay:
“The studio environment reveals the underlying processes of art making. As a visitor, you are encouraged to ask questions, talk to the artist and take your time to make sense of what you see. You can also use the occasion to learn about Manjunath Kamath’s other works. These include dramatic humanscapes, or poignant, quirky sculptures, for example, which have been exhibited in important fairs and exhibitions around the world. Everything that you see here is temporary, but your own memory of this show."
After a week’s viewing of the completed work, the gallery opted to whitewash the walls, in a way, holding up a mirror to its commercial side. This action replicated the artist’s creative process in a studio, where a work of art is frequently painted over, or perhaps deleted, not necessarily available to the audience.Going beyond the market mechanics, this was an attempt to unravel the real crux of creativity sans any pressure of sales figures and red dots.

The exhibition was essentially an exercise to let the artist work sans any pressure and let the viewers enjoy the painterly processes.

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