Camaraderie and the celebratory mode.

Abhijeet Tamhane

May Day is when the workers unite and do celebratory protests. Mumbai, once a city dominated by the three-shift routine of the textile mills, has seen these protests wither away. The celebratory May Day mode has not died, though. The artists' demonstration in Mumbai, to uphold freedom of artistic expression: re Baroda, brought the same anxiety. Why should the display of unity 'amongst us' look such special? I am not pointing at the abundance of placards or the wearable versions of protest boards that accorded some 'look' to the Mumbai protest. The people gathered along the Jehangir Art Gallery on the Protest Day were much friendlier and polite, there was a sense of fellowship and bonding, that has fast been eroding from the artdom of this city, too. Gone are the days when Delhi was the queen of snobbery. Mumbai has been grooming its 'bolly- art' snobbery in the art openings  and after parties over some years now, which was happily absent as more than 75 per cent of the same people gathered for the protest! But wasn't the protest a singular 'event' for many? It was not a question who 'attended' it. The point is it entailed some 'extra/ special/ emergency' activity in terms of interpersonal relations, for many who 'been there'. As if, the dress code dictated your smiles to be kept open to everyone just for May 14, and you can be in your usual 'smart' casuals from the may 15.

They are in town anyway…

Neha Choksi will travel to and away from herself in her series of performances scheduled at Project 88. For this gallery laden with those 'precious' senior artists for about a month, a show of performance art comes as breather, an assertion that the place values its alternative aura. Neha's press release gives this opening line…
 
 "No one is in town anyway," I overheard an esteemed Mumbai gallerist say.  My mind wondered, so who is in town anyway, indeed, who is coming into town, what do they carry along with them as their security, their necessity, and their refuge? 
   
The statement made a good read. One hopes it will be an experiment with the covert self.

Valay Shende's first solo show is open at Sakshi Gallery. Valay's sculptures tease the aesthetics propagated by an acquisitive society. Despite a language that would inspire some 'wow's and 'luv-it's to be spilled, the works retain their stain-less nature and conceptual dexterity. The show continues through June.

If you were more comfortable with paintings, May was your month! Ebenezer Sunder Singh's animal-allusions in Fauve colours (Pundole), Santosh More's spaces that unfold fantasies of music in architecture, and the shift from photo-realism to photo-shop blurs (flter>cutout) in Suryakant Lokhande's accurate rendering (ICIA) were all there.

The Baroda Hangover…
The Annual Display of the Faculty of Fine Art, MSU Baroda is yet to be re-born in Mumbai. The info-dopes that bring hallucinations to a self-styled art-correspondent, would inhabit names like Baliga, Sujith , Mistry, Vijay Kadam… et al. The debutants from Baroda will get their place/time in Mumbai soon, while the hangover of events : May 9- 14 : Baroda, persists.