The media and art make us experience the turmoil of today’s India. The former makes us experience an event collectively based on facts. Art reflects and interprets the turbulent occurrences to us, individually and personally by chronicling an episode; offering a perception; acting as society’s witness to present circumstances. What ails the country is the arbitrarily crystallized images of India and Bharat. And Civil Society essentially is the bridge between these two differing notions, its absence as well as the turbulence within the void, is the Image Mahaan.
Explaining the concept, an accompanying note to a new group show ‘Yeh Image Mahaan: India Meets Bharat’ at CIMA, Kolkata states:
"It isn’t the past which is at stake, it is the future. Neither is our way of life or lifestyle at risk; at peril is our understanding of ourselves as citizens of a modern nation, governed by Law versus custom. When Law encounters and has to interpret an old, pragmatic and often violent custom the encounter must be articulated and made visible.
"For many the expression of this collision is colourful, attractive and valuable. Law emanates from Justice which is based on the premise that all men are equal. What happens when this idea meets an ancient civilization, whose customs and practices are based on the belief that all men are not equal? Confusion, chaos and mayhem happen."
Although the scope of the exhibition is pan-Indian, some of renowned artists feature in it are from West Bengal. Veterans like Jogen Chowdhury and Ganesh Pyne share the gallery space with the talented younger artists like Kingshuk Sarkar and Sumitro Basak. The presence of names like Shakila and Mayank Kumar Shyam, academically untrained, albeit gifted artists make the templates of comparison in this sizzling spectrum even more intriguing...
The affinities are quite discernable. Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar provides a ready counterpoint to Meera Devidayal’s mixed-media of a dingy shack with sequinned doll’s house, whereas Sumitro Basak and Ashish Ghosh’s oversized carnivores exude an unmistakable energy. The curator has included artifacts like an antique lion by an anonymous artist.
There are TV commercials that afford a pointed comment on popular taste. These diversions tend to open up the viewer’s thinking power and imagination. An arresting video is of a media campaign depicting the carnivalesque spirit of South Indian politics shimmers with an infectious energy.
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