Possible Articulations
Noted artist Valsan Koorma Kolleri always has quirky titles for his solos and shows curated by him. The quirkiness leads to linguistic restructuring. Surya Singh, using the Lacanian reading of the works presented in ‘Artequalated’, a show conceptualized by Valsan says that we often look back and driven by a desire of union with the mother, native place and the region where we spent our childhood and recognize ourselves as “I’ subject.
“You never look at me from the place from which I see you.”
Lacan uses above phrase to describe the gaze that indicates the split with the eye/sight. He argues that sight examines the object, but that the gaze comes from the object. This asymmetry happened to me last week when I walked through the Open Palm Court. Very silently held and structured like a language, this exhibition dragged my attention as if it was demonstrating against media publicity stunt. “Artequalated”, a group exhibition comprising of the works of ten artists was held at Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat center last fortnight of August.
As the title signifies it was a show with many sensibilities joined together in a way that creates a new aesthetic to turn conservative aesthetic in corner. It was organized as the first Biennale of the “Silpapadyam”, a studio-cum-open space for emerging artists around the country. Located in Patyam village of the Malabar region in Kerala, and covering approximately 2 acres of land in the form of studios, residencies, gallery and exhibition space, this center has been designed by architects from CEPT, Ahmedabad involving Binu Bhaskar, kunchan, and Rajsekhar Menon.
The idea to build ‘Silpapadyam’ as an alternative place outside the metropolitan centers was conceived and formalized by internationally reputed artist Valsan Koorma Kolleri. Valsan’s vision to build a pioneering integrated art center of its own kind with the principal of making art/artists financially self sufficient so that they can build their own infrastructure, on their own terms without a dependence on patronage should be appreciated due to its daring and inspiring attempt. Though we have a long list of artists’ activism and centers initiated by artists like ‘Cholamandal’ and recently an art village near Lucknow, Valsan’s endeavor seems steadier due to its elective affinities. Developed on small unitary level and with especial focus on sculpture its characteristic is pretty inclusive and practice al forms/mediums of expression containing painting, photography, and installation as well.
Valsan’s preoccupation with past as resource and region/root as identity is very much traceable here indeed the whole ambiance is rearticulated in structuralist method especially ‘Lacanian’ orders that is analytical not evaluative. According to Lacan, we are born into a condition of ‘lack’ and subsequently spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome this condition. ‘Lack’ is experienced in several ways but it is always non-representable expression of the fundamental condition of human being. As we move forward through the narrative of our lives with desire to overcome the condition we often look back and driven by desire of union with the mother, native place and the region where we spent our childhood and recognize ourselves as “I’ subject. After spending a long span of his life as nomad, traveling and crossing different latitudes and longitudes and having a studio in Delhi Valsan must be having in mind the nostalgia of his country life, the traditional and cultural practice of Kerala. The result is an endless quest in search of an imagined plenitude that console artist’s displacement strategies and substitute objects. Four prints on archival paper of “Treat” series by Valsan were on display in exhibition. Pictures of splitting chips of some local old tree are arranged as if artist tries to recollect his fragmented memory. His treatment with archival paper itself denotes the historical recollection (documentation) of his localities and environment where a decaying tree signifies his aesthetical value.
Jyothi Basu. Sooraj Kolleri, Neha Sarai, and so on all seem to be incorporating the intricate circuitry pattern of their localities with their imaginative complexity. Their experiences of local landscape with faded colours show the primitive/ancient status of their memory. But it was Sukeshan Kanga’s drawings that took major attention. These incomplete, yet in process, drawings show Sukeshan revising and refining his imagination as if developing through ‘mirror stage.’ Now his encounter with real is an important means by which the artist is inaugurated into imaginary. Sukeshan, a resident sculptor in Silpapadyam, has been selected as the first winner of the first Silpapadyam award for the emerging sculptor. His drawings directly owe to sculptural values, are treated as the general matrix of self as other as well as self. Presence of the real is symbolic that envelop the life of a man with a larger network. The intervention of the unconscious within conscious existence reveals the fact that the self is a tentative construct, by no means entirely stable, permanent, or discrete. “How we represent ourselves and our desire?” Sukeshan answers, “It depends on structure of individual and social identity construction.” So the reading of an artwork is determined by one’s subject position… |
