IBM: Ideology, Babel And Museum
The Myth and Reality of Universities

Started in 2003 as a curatorial project, JohnyML has been working on the notion of ‘University as Museum’ for the last four years. In this three part discussion he brings in various scholarly views on universities and museums and says that Universities are the spaces worth fighting for and generating art projects. more »

The Black Box Exercise

Derived from a Chinese proverb, black box exercise means ‘operating in darkness’. Amrita Gupta Singh looks at the formation of the notion of home in a metropolis like Mumbai by analyzing the ‘Black Box Exercise’ project done by MPCVA in collaboration with the Hong Kong based cultural collective Zuni Icosahedron. She says that the notion of home is also controlled by the ISAs as observed by Louis Althusser. more »

The Common Rooms of Segregation

Why there are common rooms for girls in co-ed colleges? Why the students are asked to master the ‘Master’s Voice’ in universities? Mrinal Kulkarni, taking three examples from her life tries to find out answer to these pertinent questions. more »

CAVA: Another Apparatus

Taking Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts (CAVA) as an example, Bangalore based art critics, Rollie Mukherjee and V.Divakar explain how a state funded art institute indoctrinates students with hegemonic ideas, through its physical and conceptual presences. more »

What’s with the Old Stuff , they ask

Anuradha Nambiar, researcher and art history teacher sees the disparity between theory and practice involved in the teaching art history as a subsidiary subject for certain disciplines in Universities. She says that often the students ask why they are bombarded with this ‘old’ information. The author says that the syllabus should be revised to suit the changing demands of the courses taught in Universities. more »

The Disinterested Pleasure Of Textbook Illustrations

Text book illustrations carry ideological messages and they are consciously devised and implemented for indoctrinating children with hegemonic ideas. Kavita Balakrishnan looks at the text book illustrations in India and says that the illustrations are made to re-orient the eternally practical logic of learning within a system of domination and subordination. more »

Look at that Mountain, Once it was Fire

Madhusudhanan

A fine painter, graphic artist and internationally acclaimed short film maker K.M.Madhusudhanan has been working on his ambitious exhibition project Phalke Street: An Archaeology of Indian Cinema for the last five years. By the end of this year this project will be up in Mumbai. His latest film, ‘History is a Silent Film’ will be shown in MoMA, New York, June 2007. In conversation with JohnyML, he sheds light on his exhibition and film projects Excerpts »

Art Institutions in India

In this feature Kolkata based art historian and critic Oindrilla Maity makes a survey of Indian Art Institutions where quality art education is imparted to the aspiring students. more »

The School of Arts and Aesthetics,
Jawaharlal Nehru University

Shukla Sawant, noted artist and faculty member of the School of Arts and Aesthetic, JNU writes on the special educational features of SAA and gives a lucid description on the courses offered. more »

Khoj: searching for the cutting edge

KHOJ International Artists Association (Khoj) completes a decade of its activities this year. Voicing the alternative and networking for the cutting edge art, Khoj has gone through the highs and lows. Hemant Sreekumar, program coordinator, Khoj, New Delhi, sheds light on the past and present of Khoj. more »

Doors of Perception

‘Linkages/Dialogues’, a show at the Guild Gallery, Mumbai presents four young contemporary artists. Johny ML tries to open his doors of perception by conversing with the artists. more »

Vasudha Thozhur: Narrative and Rhetoric

In this feature, Abhijeet Tamhane reacts to the textual and visual ensemble of Vasudha Tozhur’s oeuvre and comments that they play between ‘narrative and rhetoric’, beckoning the audience to take a participatory role. more »

Design and a ‘Mortal’ Experience of Beauty

Farhan Mujib, a physicist by profession tries to infuse the Sufi world view in his collages inspired by local ‘Islamic’ religious monuments. Shubhalakshmi Shukla captures the essence of this collage artist while explaining the radical Sufi vision seen in his works. more »

Reading Viswandhan

Paris based veteran artist V.Viswanadhan is honoured by the Delhi Art Gallery, New Delhi with a monograph and a show of his early works. JohnyML goes through the book written by Madhu Jain and feels that the ‘political’ Viswanadhan is absent in the book. He takes a different route to read Viswanadhan. more »

Analogy of Radical Visions

Artist as a pedagogue faces multiple challenges as he/she functions from a contested space of institution. How does one confront these challenges? Considering the latest set of paintings by Manoj Vyloor, Baroda based artist and researcher Sathyanand Mohan says that even within the institutional space there is a possibility of transcending our everyday selves. more »

Emotions Matter, Not Gender

Gitanjali Dang visits Throne of Frost, a grand solo show of Anju Dodiya at Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai and converses with the artist to capture the essence of her new set of works. more »

Beads at a Wheel

Aakansha Rastogi looks at each frame presented in Manjunath Kamath’s solo show ‘108 Small Stories’ at Gallery Espace and says that they look like beads thrown at a wheel. They make designs and sounds at the same time through the narratives that they create, question the authority of language and social hierarchies more »

Linkages dissolved at the edges

The latest solo show of Vasudha Thozhur at the Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai has many novelties as it unveils the mind of the artist through various modes of communication. Subhalakshmi Shukla deconstructs the autobiographical self of the artist and explains how the artist engages the society with/in her own dialogic process of art creation. more »

Deception as Identity

artconcerns.com correspondent visits the solo show of sculptures by Shanti Swaroopini hosted by the Threshold Gallery, New Delhi, and discusses the notion of deception used by the artist in her works.
more »

Gods of the Streets

G.Reghu’s name is synonymous with terracotta sculptures. In a recent show held at Arushi Gallery, Delhi he presented a set of Bronze sculptures along with his terracotta works. www.artconcerns.com correspondent reviews his new works. more »

Darpan: Problems of Gaze

Darpan, a group show curated by Uma Nair problematizes the issue of ‘mirror’. Though her concept is strong, the show as a whole fails to handle the issues of ‘gaze’ and ‘other’, feels www.artconcerns.com correspondent. more »

In the Shadow: Unknown craftsmen of Bengal

Reviewed by Mrinal Kulkarni »

Unbearable Lightness of Being

Reviewed by: Geetika Kaw Kher »

A Life in Art: Raza

Reviewed by: Janakiram »

News »

Delhi Sketchbook - Johny ML »

Mumbai Sketchbook - Abhijit Tamhane »

Kolkata Sketchbook - Oindrilla Maity »

Version True - Uma Nair »

Curating can be a challenge

Darpan my first time curation took two years to materialize. Krishen Khanna's Li Po was my inspiration. And did I get flak from artists about choosing it for my cover and the invitation. But curating isn't about pleasing people. It is about wanting to create a connectivity within the intellectual and artistic sensibility. more »