Indian artists who feature in a grand touring show

‘Indian Identity and Histories’, ‘Exploding Metropolises’, and ‘Contemporary Tradition’ are the three distinct themes that form part of ‘Indian Highway’ show at Maxxi, Rome. The latter looks to explore the revisiting of exquisite ancient forms of expression from rich Indian culture, including miniatures, ceramics, ink paintings etc.

The site-specific installations, ‘Growing’ by Hemali Bhuta and ‘Strands’ by N.S. Harsha are examples, as are the large enameled panels by Nalini Malani, alluding to the mythological stories.
Among the other noteworthy works on view is Valay Shende’s sculpture work Transit. The huge truck in aluminum discs that contrast with Autosaurus Tripous, the skeleton of a rickshaw in resin bones by celebrated artist Jitish Kallat is attention grabbing. The 27-meter-long installation by internationally renowned practitioner Subodh Gupta is composed of pots and pans. It alludes to the workers’ lunch.

Other artists who form part of the ambitious art showcase are Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Sarnath Banerjee, Hemali Bhuta, Nikhil Chopra, Desire Machine Collective (Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya), Sheela Gowda, Sakshi Gupta, Shilpa Gupta, Abhishek Hazra, late M.F. Husain, Amar Kanwar, Bharti Kher, Bose Krishnamachari, Nalini Malani, Jagannath Panda, Prajakta Potnis, Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta). Tejal Shah, Valay Shende, Dayanita Singh, Sumakshi Singh, Kiran Subbaiah, Thukral & Tagra, and Hema Upadhyay.

Among the site-specific installations are:

• N.S. Harsha’s ‘Strands’: Visitors are welcomed by a gigantic garland of 700 faces that are painted directly onto the concrete piazza employing the traditional miniature technique.
  
  
• Desire Machine Collective’s ‘Trespassers will (not) be prosecuted’: Once inside the venue, in front of the impressive work by Anish Kapoor ‘Widow’, visitors are embraced by this interactive sound installation that reproduces the sounds of the Law Kintang sacred forest.
  
  
• Hemali Bhuta’s ‘Growing’ is composed of suspended incenses that inundates the entire space with the fragrances of India. Sumaksi Singh’s ‘Circumference forming’ is another site-specific work.

The grand international traveling showcase of contemporary Indian art is on view at MAXXI: Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome till the end of January 2012.