About Noise Levels and Regional Races

How much sound/noise one can make in a gallery? According to the staff of Nature Morte (Peter Nagy’s gallery in New Delhi) there should not be any sound at all. This question came to my mind when I visited the solo show of Josh PS at Nature Morte, with my two year old son. Nobody, except for the two girls who ‘woman’ the gallery, was there. My son was running inside the gallery, enjoying the noise that his sandals made against the mosaic floor. One of the girls came and told me that that the child should not make noise. I was surprised for the simple reason that my child was not making too much ‘noise’. And I have a firm belief, like any other parent that children by nature are noisy.

Gali by Uday Pandit

So I went up to the girls and asked a very simple question. “How do you control the noise on the opening days?” Now it was their turn to be caught in surprise. “Hmmm…Sir….on the opening days…,” she did not have a proper answer and how could she have? Opening days are meant for making noise. So I asked her again, “Do you have a sticker or board saying that children are not allowed in the gallery?” She said no. “Do you have any rule that except for the opening days children are not allowed here?” I asked. “No…sir,” she said. “Then why did you ask my child to stop making noise? He was not disturbing works and he was not touching the sculpture. He was just listening to the sound that he could make with his sandals. So next time you should not ask a child to stop making noise,” I told her.

I have been stopped at a few places, especially in bars, as I have gone there with my child. The last incident of this kind happened when I went to attend a party after Bose’s LaVa show in Delhi. But the Bar attendants were apologetic enough to make us comfortable and even went to extent of saying that they would arrange another room for my family, which we refused. Bose too apologized for the unexpected happening. Now the galleries can make rules against kids or they can ask their girls not to interfere with the ‘kids’ affairs.’ Interestingly, I saw Peter Nagy jumping over a work of art (a sculpture) with a glass of wine in his hands, at the Bodhi Gallery, Gurgaon. There were a lot of people making noises and Nagy did not find a way to cross the noisy crowd. So he simply jumped over the work. Many were witness to this acrobatic act of Nagy. Shall we go and jump across works at Nature Morte?

The work that got the luck to be jumped over by Nagy is done by Uday Pandit. Uday Pandit is one of the seven artists from Patna who currently exhibit at the Bodhi, Gurgaon. Curtaed by Subodh Gupta, who is a proud son of Patna, this seven artists’ show is titled ‘Regional Race.’  Rajiv Ranjan, Sikandar Hussain, Shailendra Kumar, Sanjay Singh, Tribhuvan Deo, Umesh Kumar are the other artists in the show. Rajiv Ranjan and Umesh Kumar are purely painters. There is an intriguing theatricality about their works and they look as if they were sharing the same studio. Sikandar Hussain and Tribhuvan Deo indulge in a kind of painterly installations. Tribhuvan uses the mountaineering kit and watercolors of the mountain-scapes to represent an adventurous journey. Sikandar Hussain uses small traditional and folk drawings with a lot of writing around it, in clusters. While Sanjay Singh creates collaged drawings with bus tickets and other bills, Shailendra Kumar presents a series of photographs taken from a place of pilgrimage. Uday Pandit’s sculptures are interesting with a lot of sense of humor involved in them. Perhaps, this is the one artist whose aesthetics finds resonance with that of both Subodh Gupta and Bharti Kher.

As an attempt to showcase the artists from less exposed regions of India, ‘Regional Race’ should be appreciated. Post modernism is all about regional voices, even if these regional voices get recognition only when they go national and international. That is the never say die attitude of modernism. However, belonging to a particular region, which is capable of representation through agency determines and assures the presence and success in the general scene of art, it should be taken with a pinch of doubt. Tomorrow, we will see many more ‘regional races’ through powerful agencies. I would say this tendency to feature the region is an after effect of the Double-Enders that showcased sixty nine Malayali artists. While appreciating both Bose and Subodh, I would say, history repeats itself first time as tragedy and then as farce. In Chak De India, Kabir Khan (played by Shah Rukh Khan) tells his girls (in the hockey team) that they do not belong to Manipur or Chandigarh. They belong to India. Too much of heroic modernism in there. Yes, but in art, we really need to ask, should there be state wise ‘Regional Races’? If it is needed, I would say, powerful agencies like Bose and Subodh should cultivate curators and artists from the North Eastern bloc. They are the real subaltern in Indian art ever. Once again I take the liberty to quote from Chak De India. The girls from North East come to enroll in the hockey team, the clerk tells them, “Aayiye, aap hamara mehman hai” (Welcome, you are our guests). Then the girls retort, “It is a shame to be a guest in your own home.”

Having said that, in Delhi we have ‘Gallery Racism’ now. I would explain it like this: a particular gallery expecting a particular crowd for a particular show of a particular artist/s. A set of people who are seen in a gallery are never seen in any other gallery. They are not even seen in the same gallery for another artist. They are a special race. I have seen even gallerists and gallery workers standing out of place and out of mind, when this race comes and takes over the gallery space. Recently, an artist friend commented, “There are two types of shows in galleries. One is art show, the other is fashion show. Certain openings are fashion shows. So just keep off.” He is nothing but perceptive.

I happened to attend a ‘fashion show’ in a gallery recently. Anyone, except the door man and a few gallery attendants, could make out that ‘I did not belong’. Luckily I saw a young art critic friend rushing towards the door as if she was performing an emergency exist. We bumped into each other and held each other so tightly as if it was the last moment in our lives. Again I quote my artist friend, “You critics are pundits. You are needed for performing rituals. But after that you are not expected there for the main function.” (Art world mein critic log pundits hota hai. Artists ko aur galleries ko punditon ka zaroorat hai. Lekin puja karne ke baad pundit ka zaroorat nahin hai. Aur yaad rakhna, pundit log car mein aana nahin hai. Pundit log cycle mein aana hai aur fatti kapda pehanna hai). Salaam dost.