Searching for a new viewpoint on our vision of Mahatma Gandhi

Who has seen Gandhi? is an exhibition of Contemporary Indian art conceptually anchored by Rahul Bhattacharya courtesy Tangerine Art Space, Bangalore. It is on view at Gallery Kynkyny Art.

Among the participating artists are KM Adimoolam, Manu Parekh, MF Husain, Gigi Scaria, Gireesh G V, Arun Kumar HG, Ashish Kumar Das, Debraj Goswami, Deepak Tandon, Bibhu Pattnaik, Debanjan Roy, Gururaj Hadadi, Jagannath Panda, Josh PS, Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi, Riaz Samadhan, Sachin Karne, Sudhanshu Sutar, Tushar Waghela, Prasad Raghavan, Rajan Krishnan,Vibha Gahlotra, Viveek Sharma, Murali Cheeroth and Navjot Altaf.

Curators of the show Rahul Bhattacharya mentions in an accompanying note: "The question ‘Who has seen Gandhi?’ can have many answers, well almost as many as the number ways this question can be understood, one can begin with wondering what exactly is seeing, or else one can wonder what or who is Gandhi. If Gandhi is to be understood in terms of a particular vision, energy, or a path one can assume that hardly anyone from the post-independence generations have seen him.

"However if Gandhi is to be viewed as a stale icon, or a forced annual two minutes of silence, then yes we have all seen him. Who is this Gandhi we have seen?” a pedestalized icon? An untouchable myth? Or a father who has been disowned, but celebrated through sterile ritual references by the state? A key aspect of reinvigorating our times with the values of truth and dignity, intrinsic to Gandhi, is to be able to visually reclaim Gandhi and the symbolic manifestations of his ideologies and philosophies. When a person who communicated and lead the nation primarily through his “personal touch” is visually reduced to a stagnant “iconified” image, we know that it is the time to contest and reclaim his imagery. "

The stagnant 'iconification', as the curator mentions, is a metaphor of Gandhi being reduced to a distant unreachable (un fashionable?) icon and this mode of representation has severed the purpose in the realm of politics where the myth and fame of Gandhi still has relevance in luring voters, but his models have become too difficult to follow. In this context, ‘Who has seen Gandhi?’ is imagined to be a ‘space’ where such alternative possibilities are showcased, seeded and nurtured.