D elhi’s first public arts festival, 48°C, is on till tomorrow. For those of you who haven’t seen it still, the festival, commissioned by Goethe-Institut, and curated by Pooja Sood, was planned and executed over two long years. The impact may not be immediately visible but the works do leave their mark. (I was dumbstruck at the installation of an uprooted tree hanging by a crane atop a century-old house at Barakhamba Road, see picture).
Then, there is another installation at the Mandi House round-about, signifying the extinction of white vultures. Taking the metro from Mandi House to the New Delhi Railway Station, I stopped by at the Ramlila Grounds, where three installations (including one which was a roof with old tin dabbas painted in shocking pink colour) caught the eye.
Even as vehicles buzz past, curious jaywalkers snigger at the works and others soak in the winter sun leisurely taking in the installations that scream for attention: it’s a crucial baby-step for art emerging in a realm where the aam juna is so far removed from it.
Do spare just a few hours on Sunday, hop on to the Metro and appreciate the 11 installations that the city has acquired because they’re worth it.
While at it, a good idea will be to also check video installations at Clarion Collection (formerly known as Qutub Hotel) in New Delhi. An emerging art form, at least in India, this showcases works of four artists, including Ravi Agarwal, Priyanka Dasgupta, Sukanya Ghosh and Adrian Fisk.
Then, there is Ashtanayika, curated by Dr Alka Pande, where works by eight artists, in steel and mixed media, are displayed. Nothing Alike & Much In Common, an exhibition of ceramics and textiles by Pippin Drysdale and Maggie Baxter at Anant Art is also interesting. Gallery Espace, on the other hand, will present Allure, a solo exhibition of recent works (acrylic and ink on paper) by the internationally-renowned
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Brooklyn-based artist, Rina Banerjee from December 19, 2008 to January 13, 2009. The artist’s works mix Asian and western materials. Powdered spices and glittering sari cloth, for instance, create a “hybrid version of exoticism”.
Kolkata’s Tejas Gallery, meanwhile, presents an exhibition of artworks by artists from Kolkata, Santiniketan and Vietnam. The city is also bringing a host of contemporary miniature artists at Masters Collection Gallery. But despite the recession, we’ll also have people running to CIMA Gallery to take a look at the works of Abir Karmakar, Alok Bal, Debraj Goswami, Farhad Hussain, Jogen Chowdhury, Paresh Maity, Partha Pratim Deb, Sumitro Basak and others.
Mumbai, still limping towards normalcy will, at Nehru Centre Art Gallery, showcase under its Indian Master’s Retrospective, works by Professor P A Dhond till January 4, 2009. In these times of recession and terror, isn’t art just the perfect balm?