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Kolkata Sketch Book

The scorching summer sun is playing havoc with us Kolkatans. A dozing dog with its tongue lolling out and men walking under pitch black umbrellas, mopping sweat with handkerchiefs and panting and exasperated is a common sight nowadays. However nothing seems to stop the mob from thronging at the venues where a number of good shows are on display. A number of refreshing changes are now all around the city. Earlier this month, the Birla Academy featured ‘Beyond Credos – painting in Baroda today’. Curatedby Shivaji Panikkar, Professor and Head, Department of Art History, the show featured the works of the Baroda based artists such as Vasudevan Akkitham, B. V. Suresh, Indrapramit Roy and Sashidharan, all painter-teachers at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the M. S. University of Baroda, who were initially trained in the narrative idiom but gradually as a result of their study stay and travel in Europe had undid much of the Baroda training. Consequently the years since the second half of 1980s have seen artworks based on individual choices of artists in terms of pictorial sensibility and their ideological underpinnings. The show also comprises of some of the younger and middling generation painters living in Baroda such as Lavanya Mani, Alok Bal, Abir Karmakar, Poushali Das, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Lokesh Khorke, Puja Vaish, Sharmi Chowdhury, Raju Patel, Chinnan Vinod, Ajay Sharma, Hiran Trivedi, Anjum Chaturvedi and others almost all of who are pass outs of the M. S. University. The show aimed at finding out possibilities beyond the existing system or credos. The paintings of K. P. Reji, Vasudevan Akkitham (The Fire Garden), Lavanya Mani (Madder Route), or Sashidharan portray the apprehensions on human interventions as well as the artists’ preoccupations with historical or mythological memories and their direct choices.  While Raju Patel (Soul) and Anjum Chaturvedi (Olfactory Nostalgia) invite the viewer in relation to the self / body as fragments, B.V. Suresh (Gendkhana) Indrapromit Roy (Deep Dusk) are explorations beyond credos, between figurations and abstraction. The two curatorial notes by Shivaji Panikkar and Santosh S.’s ‘Perhaps (nothing is) Beyonds Credos’ are collectors’ items and are prized possessions for the art historian.

Samit Das’ show ‘B / W’ at the Gallery ’88 is a splash of freshness from the artists, who produced woks primarily in black and white images – photographs, paintings and installations. Samit’s works are the renditions of human landscapes – houses and manmade structures, which become a symbol of damage inflicted on the contemporary human condition. He raises certain questions on whether there is an ethic of the city? Is there a void in new network communication connections? He addresses issues on void ness human isolation and globalization. Trained in book-art, Samit is technically proficient in pop-up books, and cut- out images. His installations thus, comprise of cardboard cut-outs of buildings juxtaposed with strips of black and white images clipped in the book format, which the on looker can browse through – all of which having a novelty in them.

Marcel Odenbach, the German documentary film- maker, has visited Kolkata, for the second time for whom the city was eagerly waiting after his first visit and show at the Max Mueller Bhavan, a couple of years ago. Marcel’s are social comments on Human sufferings (Rwanda), satires on human predicaments and historical documentation, with an aesthetic treatment. Documentation is an obviously long research process for him. Odenbach belongs to a time when the World War had just stopped. Being a German was almost an offensive act then. He belonged to a family, part Jewish and part German, which makes it obvious for him to spot discrimination. ‘Male Story I and II’ are depictions of Turkish people in Germany and in Turkey, in which he chose to work with Turko-German people. His 2004 documentary features genocide in Rwanda. Odenbach’s treatment of the film language and his split screen treatment are almost legendary.

The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark’s attempt in featuring ‘Art in Daily Life’ is enterprising. The show features objects for use in daily life that are rich in beauty and aesthethic, despite their utilitarian purpose. Part of the objects in view belong to the museum’s own collection while the rest have been offered by several individuals from their personal collection for the purpose of the show. The show not only displays such objects as a silver hookah of the late 19th c, moulds for ‘sandesh’, silver ornaments from Rajasthan and Gujarat, textiles from all over the country, but also replicates several ritualistic events done by the very people who follow it. For instance, Bengali life and culture is integrally associated with Bangladesh forming the major part of it. The institute commissioned artists (women folks) from both the countries to draw the ‘alpanas’ or ritualistic drawings within the gallery space. Also the clay- made sacred dolls and imaginary creatures that are part of the events, have been added to these. The list of such events comprises of ‘yajnas’ from several marginalized communities, along with the decorations; the ‘sashthi brata’; the ‘yama brata’ and others, all of which despite being what one would term as ‘erasures’ are nonetheless spectacular a show. However, it is perhaps time that we change our views about museum going and the role of the public there. A public place has necessarily to be interactive. People should be allowed to react, interact and express themselves in such places, as the key idea for curating such shows is to promulgate and generate awareness among the masses about their nation and culture. Stopping the people from reacting spontaneously or viewing the gallery space without exchanging a single word verbally, and prohibition of photography is perhaps the biggest flaw a museum can have today (which is why this article could not provide an authentic image of the show, neither the rarest ritualistic performances. The only image of the show is reproduced from its catalogue). The sedate nature of Asian museums therefore fails to draw viewers as compared to the ones in the west.

‘Changing Images’ is the annual show featuring the works of the teachers of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. The show is on till 31st March 2007. The show makes it evident that the artist-teachers of the faculty have brought about drastic changes in their stylization. The works of Sohini Dhar, Atanu Basu (Landscape I), Anindya Pandit (Aaya na balama) are obvious examples of experimentation. Pandit’s theme is more evocative of the artist-citizen’s claim on his environ – to which he belongs. This applies to Parag Roy as well. Although primarily a print-maker, Roy enjoys painting on canvas equally. His composite creatures (Office Colleagues) are an addition to the long legacy of the Bengali culture with its mythological creations. He once again makes one recall the drab, dreary life at the government offices and the sedate life of the Bengali middle-class that is often self-complecent. When the blurring effects of globalization plays havoc with identity, nationality and all that is associated with retaining such ideologies, it is the artist- citizen, who comes to reclaim history. Krishna Biswas’ ‘Breezy’ despite its naïveté in stylization is not derth in spontaneity. Biswas is largely self-taught. Her handling of the materials – cloth, board and acrylic obviates her moving away from doing a canvas and experimenting with new materials. We look forward to more such new expressions and ideas in the coming years.