Delhi Sketchbook

Number 4, Katwaria Sarai. An unlikely address for an art project to take place. To relax the eyebrows, the invitation says, ‘opposite Qutub Hotel’. Thank God. The project takes place at the third floor barsati. Those who are with poor eyesight and an extra amount of flesh would find it difficult to reach the place.

Before going into details, I would like you to peep into the account book of the family that lives in the abovementioned address. A two room set (two rooms, one kitchen and a bathroom-for those who don’t understand the Delhi property standards) in this locality yields a neat Rs.4500/- per month as rent. That means Rs.54000/- in a year. One lakh and eight thousand rupees in two years! Not a small amount for a joint family that depends totally on the income from the tenants.

Artist Giriraj Singh did his untitled project between these two odds. One, he did the project in a shanty town address. Two, he made the family to lose a handsome amount of Rs.1,08,000/- Now it is time to talk about the project.

I would like to call it ‘A Museum of Permitted Porn Pics’. The two room set is filled with the pictures of women patiently cut out from the page threes of national dailies. Every inch of the wall is covered with these pictures. The household items like fan, alarm clock, television, chair, table, helmet etc are also pasted with these pictures. They are not randomly done. Each picture is selected to create a visual effect. They in total create a hallucinatory vision.

What do you see in these rooms? Faces, otherwise easily identifiable, lose their distinct nature. The rooms throb in the orgy of exposed skin. The colors that you see are the clothes worn by these women. But they transform into peepholes. Perhaps, a few Pakistani artists have used porn pics to create portraits. Chris Ofili too has done his bit of blasphemy by creating a Virgin Mary using porn pics.

So where do we find Giriraj Singh and his two years of toil? This post graduate from the Jamia Millia Islamia has his own reason to do this. “This is the culture that we are made to consume on a day-to-day basis. They come directly into our homes and nobody opposes. The socio-cultural hypocrisy has reached to a level where everything in smaller doses is permissible.”

The artist is happy for the people from his neighborhood are finally convinced of his talent, though his parents are not. Page three journos came in only to find their splurging has taken a different shape. Artist community has trickled in. Yet the biggies need to be cajoled in. Giriraj needs to further his experiments in this line. He needs help from funding agencies or galleries. Are there any takers?

When Parvati Baul sings

Yes, when Parvati Baul sings everyone listens. She is an ex-Santiniketan painting student, rusticated for her extra curricular activities. She is a painter and a singer. She travels all over the world and like a traditional scroll painter and story teller presents her works and sings. Parvati resides in Trivandrum, Kerala like the famous Chaavu dancer Daksha Seth who found her home there.

Parvati was on her way to Denmark and she performed at the Chittaranjan Das Bhavan at the aegis of a cultural group called ‘Bikalp’. She explained her songs in English. The hardcore regionalists amongst the crowd opposed Parvati saying that a Baul should not speak in English. They did not bother to think how she would have explained her songs to a foreign audience if she had adhered to Bengali language. They forgot Tagore and Amartya Sen for a while, it seemed.

Click to zoom

Gallery Beyond and Beginnings Gallery Beyond presented a group of young artists at the Lalit Kala Akademy Galleries. The very term ‘young’ naturally triggers some curiosity. But it was really a disappointing show. Beyond colours there was nothing. To save the face, the gallery could present a few works by Shovin Bhattacharya and Prasant Katalia. Without those works it would have been disastrous. May be when there are more disasters like this, one need not really care.

Vasundhara Tewari Broota

Vasundhara Tewari Broota’s solo show titled ‘Child Speak/Woman Song’ has finally reached from Vadehra Gallery to Sridharani Gallery. It is good to have two openings of the same show in the same city for the underprivileged too can see it if they are not invited for the ‘Lunch Opening’. Vasundhara as usual is in her provocative best. But while coming out of the gallery one might think whether the artist is too much in love with the ‘child’ than the issues that she would like to treat. A sense of detachment, as seen in the works of Mary Kelly, is lacking in Vasundhara’s works. Let the child grow and the woman age. Things will be alright.

N.Ramachandran at Apparao Garden Gallery

‘We are Open’, the Garden Gallery handled by the Apparao Galleries located at the amphitheatre in Triveni Complex, New Delhi says. That is good. One should be open, if possible, always. The Chennai based N.Ramachandran presents his collage based constructions there. All the works are with red bindis. Good sign. Collage artists have a future with the Apparao Galleries.

Travancore Art Gallery Rocks

When I converted the disused spaces at the Travancore Palace into Travancore Art Gallery almost two years back, art circuit took it with a lot of skepticism. Whoever came to visit the place complained about the sorry state of walls and other facilities. I could not do more as it was a government run building and the only support I got was from Mr.A.R.Raju, estate manager of the Palace. He stood behind me like a pillar clearing all administrative lags and cynicism. Now I am very happy because the biggest gallery in India, Bodhi Art Gallery has taken this space for its regular shows. Sakshi Gallery is also interested to do shows in this space. We wish all the best to Travancore Art Gallery.

Birthday Parties

Art market boom has its positive effects. Those artists, who have been cursing the moments of their birth till date, now find that it is a time to celebrate. So we have more and more Birthday parties. Recently Binoy Varghese threw a lavish party at the India International Centre and the occasion was his 41st Birthday. Wish you a happy birthday Binoy. But my advice is this: Spend more time to study and give parties to your brain. Once the honeymoon with the skin is over, people would ask for the stuff.