Farida Zaman
Bound to the Soil
conflict within sculptures by
Bengal Art Lounge 6 - - 2 Sep 2013
conflict within sculptures by
www.akarprakar.com
ICCR
Published by Bengal Art Lounge House 60, Road 131 Gulshan 1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh Contact +880 1191002663 art.lounge@bengalfoundation.org www.bengalfoundation.org/artlounge
Design Emon - Bengal Foundation
Printing Graphosman Reproduction and Printing, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Letting the Outside In
Katerina Don Bengal Art Lounge
The lightness of being, is not simply bearable, it is gratifying. That is the message which Radhakrishnan's works bring to Dhaka. They are joyful, even when they are sombre, due to their apparent weightlessness. The theme of conflict seems so trivial in the grand scheme of things, it is only a phase of evolution, a rock in the flow. The miniature figures that inhabit his works are in a constant state of flux, which is complimented by their homogeneity and unity. In some works, there are figures that rise above the rest as individuals, but even they share a close bond to the nest of unified entities. The scale of this body of work is confidential - the visitor must come close and bend to observe them. The viewer is witness of a secret and imaginary world - a concentrated, poetic representation of our own. In this charmed intimacy, it would not be surprising to hear the sound of impish laughter and chatter emanating from the clouds of figures. It is a coincidence that this exhibition is preceded by a purely conceptual show, Automated Subjectivity, which demanded rigour of attention and a keen interest in deciphering images. The works presented in Conflict Within - Ascending/Descending Figures, are very defined; there is no hidden message and no trick or particular context, nor any specific approach to understanding the artist's concept. The forms are literal - the head balancing a boat laden with small figures represents the journey of experiences, which we all contain within our minds. But it is also a subjective statement, an individual must at times yield to the flow; and at others, stand firmly against it. Across town the solo exhibition of another Indian artist is taking place. The works of Ganesh Haloi share the same quality of natural litheness and rhythm. In the presence of works like this, it is not the borderline that matters, but the watercolor line and the curve of bronze silhouette. Organized in collaboration with Akar Prakar, Kolkata and ICCR, this exhibition yet again, seeks to highlight the universality of the arts. These works, they become a part of us, part of what we carry in our boat-like minds.
Day by day I float my paper boats one by one down the running stream. In big black letters I write my name on them and the name of the village where I live. I hope that someone in some strange land will find them and know who I am. Rabindranath Tagore Paper Boats
The Very Heart of Today: The Experience of Imagined Worlds Premjish Achari Writer and independent curator, works and lives in New Delhi.
We can assert with certainty that the universe is all center, or that the center of the universe is everywhere and its circumference nowhere.- Giordano Bruno (1584) Who is the greatest nostalgic of all time? Milan Kundera in his seminal novel Ignorance mentions that it is Odysseus, who is also the greatest adventurer of all time. If we forgive Kundera's Eurocentric presupposition, this question could open up many other possibilities and many other claimants to it. Kundera could neither imagine the possibility of Rama from the Indian epic Ramayana as a possible contestant for it. Nor can he include Sindbad the sailor into his imagination. In Ramayana, Rama advises his younger brother Lakshmana that motherland (Ayodhya) and mother are more important than heaven. Sindbad's adventures always brought him back to Basrah. His adventures through Asia, Africa and many other continents and the immense wealth he acquired were never as satiating as his return to his hometown. A probable return to the hometown is every traveler's longing. Thus a sojourner is constantly burdened with nostalgia and memory. Unlike Hartley's presumption that 'the past is a foreign land', the traveler inverts this idea, for the traveler, the present is foreign and the past is a homeland, 'albeit a lost home in a lost city in the mists of lost time'. But certain travelers are at ease with both the past and the present. K. S. Radhakrishnan is such a traveler; rather a cosmopolitan nomad. He has a subtle, penetrating and deeply felt engagement with nostalgia, history and memory. For him, like Giordano Bruno, the center of universe is everywhere and no periphery has to be demarcated based on inferior forms of identity and existence. K. S. Radhakrishnan's latest works in this exhibition are his meditations on migration, history, nostalgia and memory. He renders form to unreal imaginations; forms which appear in our dreams and vanish the moment we wake up. He executes, in time and space, imaginary and symbolic worlds. These small intimate bronze figurines and other forms are his search for the beauty of his time. It is also an attempt to make his viewers see his moods and his experiences with the physical landscape of Bangladesh. The artist here highlights the conflicts within humanity which could make or break civilizations. The constant conflict within the multitude, which aids the advantages and perils of human evolution are the essence of these works. Radhakrishnan's works are about conflict – the conflict we live through, the conflict present in the journey of humanity through time and the conflict to sustain the shared symbols which tell us to make sense of our lives. His works makes its own space and then fills it with various meanings. They commune with us in a sensuous dream and allow themselves to be the inventers of a new world. For him these works are about human journey and its numerous possibilities. Formally, sculptures defy the planar. In such an existence it becomes the site in which space and force begin to define each other. Unlike painting or any other two dimensional works of art it cannot remain šSalman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands ²Andrew Benjamin, Serra and The Space of Sculpture aloof to the site of its existence. It entails space creation in a pre existing space. To understand the specificity of each sculpture we have to examine the interconnection between space, materials and the body. This particular engagement with this medium will facilitate a nuanced understanding about this group of works. Further, we also have to take into account the position of the body of the viewer and the way in which he/she observes or views these sculptures. Radhakrishnan's works require such differing demands from the viewer's body. Such engagement could be seen in many of the public sculptures which have been executed by Radhakrishnan across the world and across India. Starting from the very early Chandela Rider, Mahishasura Mardini to his very latest Kalapravaham (Time Tide) and many other public sculptures featuring Musui and Maiya, steeped are a complex viewer-sculpture-space inter-relation. Kalapravaham is installed in Mananchira Ground in Kozhikode which is also a public park. The lofty sculpture installed on a small mound has Musui, on the top of a stone pillar, overlooking the visitors. The structure easily merges with the landscape and does not disturb the viewer. We can see what it consists of; the conscious execution of interplay of space, movement and material. It is not Musui, but it is we who are dreaming the passage of time. Through Musui the viewer is not only dreaming of time but also the world, like Borges had written, 'The mind was dreaming; the world was
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its dream.' It has to be noted that Radhakrishnan was fortunate to study under the two relevant sculptors of Indian modernism – Ramkinkar Baij and Sarbari Roy Choudhury. More than teachers they were his friends and mentors. If the latter was well known for his dynamic intervention in public spaces the former is known for his intimate pieces of sculptures. Radhakrishnan here is further or rather different from both Baij and Choudhury. He blends the best of both but achieves much more with his characteristic clarity, enthusiasm and innovative ideas. He is not a mere hybrid but an insightful artist and a humanist. This show explores his engagement with smaller and intimate forms. His engagement with natural forces in a smaller size has started from early 90s. He observes that there are two ways of looking at small sculptures – one is preparatory and second is the final work. There were many small maquettes he prepared in his Santiniketan days unintended to enlarge them. These were works which had intimate and personal meanings for him. They also encompass his affinity with natural forces and through them his liking for movements. Movements which are physical or which exist in thoughts which could take us to many spaces. Most of these works comprise of small anonymous figures. Unlike his earlier works which featured Maiya and Musui in many different forms, be it forming giant pillars, walls, ramps, etc. these new works do not specify any gender. They look similar to Musui and Maiya in execution but they are gender neutral. They retain their anonymity like the individual faces which retain their anonymity in ³Art historians R. Siva Kumar and Johny M.L. in their earlier studies on Radhakrishnan have noted how most of these works were initially exhibited inside the gallery space but were later installed in public spaces or outdoors. This points towards a unique engagement of his works with the private and public spaces and his engagement with the use of a pedestal. Siva Kumar has also extensively written on Radhakrishnan's two main themes or motifs – Musui and Maiya I will not be elaborating on their importance in this repertoire. 4 For the sake of discussion I have limited Baij's role as a sculptor. Otherwise it is well established how versatile he was with various mediums. But also we cannot deny the importance of his sculptures which has overshadowed many of his other works in other mediums.
larger historic movements or conflicts. Radhakrishnan here privileges the anonymous, faceless individual within the multitude. Most of the sculptures in this exhibition are constitutive of such small figures. For convenience, let me group together such similar sculptures featuring these small figures which depict movement starting with stable geometric shapes but dissolving into disorder. Conflict Within, Dissolving a Circular Order, Dissolving a Cubical Order, Global Migration, Conflict Within, and Human Boxes are such examples of the use of these figures where the artist plays with the binaries of order and disorder and also with confused movements. These works explore the conflicts within these human movements. These works are sculptural spellbinders whose gripping expressions of sensuousness, movement, and turbulence grab our immediate attention. During early discussions with Radhakrishnan about these works I was extremely interested in the dichotomy of order and disorder. This led me to John Ruskin's essay The Nature of Gothic which deals with the precise moment when Britain was emerging as a global power in 19th century and offers a staunch critique of that dominance. Here the attempt is not to term Radhakrishnan's works as Gothic but to engage with the ideas of 'rude' and 'imperfect' or identify disorder as dominant themes in these works. Ruskin observes that the Gothic is characterized by savageness or rudeness and grotesqueness in English architecture. The movements in these works reminded me of the opening shot of Chaplin's Modern Times. I am referring to the uniform, regimented, and mechanical movement of the workforce. Similar regimented movements could be seen in the documentation of Nazi parades by Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of The Will. Radhakrishnan uses disorder as an inevitable part of human movement through history. Such deviance has always led to innovations and development of new thoughts. It has been rebellious in nature and many times has revolutionized this journey. Global migrations are possible through such possible movements of the affluent and the underprivileged. It is through such movements that nations are built, they survived and decline. It is only through this conflict of these dialectic forces, one can assume a progress in time and history. It invokes the concept of Platonic anamnesis. Anamnesis means remembrance or reminiscence, the collection and recollection of what has been lost, forgotten or
effaced. It is therefore the matter of very old, of what has made us who we are. But anamnesis is also a work that transforms its subjects, always producing something new. To recollect the old, to produce the new: that is the task of anamnesis. Such is the culmination of these conflicts and deviances within these movements, which produce something new but constantly remind us of our past. They are also the travelers imagined by Borges who were in search of the river of immortality. Borges writes: 'There exists a river whose water grants 5 Multitude
is a term used by Machiaveli and later by Spinoza as a group of citizens who could maintain a check on the rulers. In the modern day context the term has found larger acceptance among social scientists to denote the mass involved in resistance movements in Egypt, Europe, USA, India and Bangladesh. 6 Amit
Chaudhuri's essay on Ashis Nandy's works and on the imagination of Indian Gothic has played an important influence in this argument. AmitChaudhuri; Clearing a Space 7 Andrew
Benjamin and Charles Rice, Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity
immortality; in some region there must be another river whose water removes it.' It is through such conflicting journey, that history proceeds. These figures are in search of that river. In his 'Breeze through the Railing' a group of small bronze figurines move through window railings. The movement is not tempestuous. It is slow and gentle, capturing the motion of a breeze. This breeze could be an afternoon movement through his wooden window railings in Kerala. This wind could be the same wind which has travelled far away and still could touch him. It is symbolic of a monologue from his interior which is out there and could connect through time. Musui with a Bursting Cloud, Twisted Wind, Boat on the Head, Lamp Inserted in the Human Web, etc. invoke natural forces using these movements. Radhakrishnan also plays with iconic motifs like lamp and boat which were a part of his cultural imagination. Coming from Kerala the land of many rivers and backwaters, for Radhakrishnan, shararanthal (lamp) and vanchi/vallam (boat) were part and parcel of everyday life. Moving from a small village of Kerala to Santiniketan for higher studies was a greater shift in his life. In Santiniketan he never felt alone. He found hospitable people and a similar topography to that of Kerala. This exhibition is also a tribute to such shared nature of these two cultures and especially to the people of modern Bangladesh. During his formative years in Santiniketan he had the chance to witness the plight of Bangladeshi migrants and the trauma of the partition of larger Bengal. Being a migrant he also empathized with the refugees and believed himself to be an ally of them. These works are reflective of such turbulence and affinities. He narrated how he was influenced by the socially connected and deeply rooted artists from Bangladesh and how he is very comfortable in visiting that land. It is a friendly destination for him. Lamp Inserted in the Human Web is also a humanities movement towards light, or rather, enlightenment. It is the pursuit of knowledge. The insight they provide is hope and redemption in deeply troubling times. It is a deep felt engagement with time, knowledge and self. Radhakrishnan's symbols are expressions that have many meanings and are rich in mystery. It is an attempt to recover many things which were lost in time. The exhibition also has small sculptures featuring the two important motifs of his - Musui and Maiya. These works offer an important insight into understanding the interiority of a contemporary Indian sculptor in the age of globalization and one who belongs to the world and is not delimited by national boundaries. He challenges the redundant conservatism with his sculptural forms. He conjures up a universe filled with relentless travelers, imagined histories, and imaginary and symbolic worlds. He creates dream-like structures with his elegant craft as well as an emotional climate in which we can envisage to depart from settled artistic practices and comprehend conflicts with transformatory potentials.
Boat on the Head . 59 x 53 x 27 cm . 2012
Conflict Within . 48 x 45 x 50 cm . 2013
Breeze through the Railing . 53 x 69 x 33 cm . 2013
Descending Figures . 53 x 31 x 31 cm . 2011
Disolving a Circular Order . 33 x 38 x 38 cm . 2013
Five Figures on the Ramp . 76 x 23 x 48 cm . 2013
Maiya on the Bend . 57 x 30 x 22 cm . 2011
Disolving a Cubical Order . 38 x 38 x 30 cm . 2013
Global Migration . 36 x 22 x 36 cm . 2013
Head Inserted in the Human Web . 45 x 36 x 28 cm . 2011
Horizontal Maiya . 43 x 18 x 33 cm . 2011
Maiya on Musui - 2 46 x 33 x 22 cm . 2013
Human Box on the Wall 77 x 38 x 33 cm . 2013
Musui with a Bursting Cloud 69 x 40 x 40 cm . 2013
Human Box - 2 38 x 33 x 28 cm . 2013
Musui as Terrafly on the Ramp 64 x 48 x 36 cm . 2011
Lamp Inserted in the Human Web 76 x 40 x 22 cm . 2011
Airbound Maiya . 76 x 20 x 24 cm . 2013
Musui in the Nest 38 x 34 x 18 cm . 2011
Human Box - 2 . 38 x 33 x 28 cm . 2013
Twisted Wind . 56 x 49 x 43 cm . 2013
Musui Celebrated 84 x 26 x 26 cm . 2013
Wet Home . 64 x 33 x 36 cm . 2013
KS RADHAKRISHNAN 1956 Born in Kerala, India
Education 1979 : BFA in Sculpture, Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal 1981 : MFA in Sculpture, Viswa Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal Solo exhibitions 2013 : 'Panta rhei : everything flows', Kashi Art Gallery, Kochi, Kerala 2012 : 'The Ramp Revisited', Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi : 'Ascending Figures', Focus Art Gallery, Chennai 2010 : 'Liminal Figures, Liminal Space' Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai : 'Liminal Figures, Liminal Space' Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram, sponsored by Government of Kerala 2009 : 'Liminal Figures, Liminal Space' Lalitkala Academy Galleries, New Delhi 2008 : 'Liminal Figures, Liminal Space' Birla Academy, Kolkata 2008 : 'Impudence of Musui' Karma Gallery, Ahmedbad 2006 : 'Freehold' at Museum Gallery, Mumbai : 'Freehold' at Artalive Gallery, New Delhi 2005 : 'The Ramp' at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai : 'Unbearable Lightness of being' at India International Centre, New Delhi 2004 : 'The Ramp' at Sridharani Art Gallery, New Delhi : 'The Ramp' at Bayer ABS Limited Gallery, Vadodara 2000 : 'Musui Maiya' sponsored by Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi 1998 : 'Song of the Road' - sponsored by International Travel House, ITC, New Delhi 1997 : Hotel Park Royal, New Delhi : 'Portal' - Apeejay Lawns, Calcutta, sponsored by Apeejay Surendra, Group, Calcutta 199 : Khirkee Gallery, New Delhi 1993 : Centre des Bonds de Marne, LePerreux-Bry sur-Marne, Paris, France 1992 : Studio Khirkee, New Delhi 1987 : Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai 1983 : Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai : Participation, projects and awards 2013 : Curated the exhibition 'Image of Jyotish Chakravarty' at Akar Prakar, Kolkata 2012 : Curated the exhibition 'Ramkinkar Baij - A Retrospective' at National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi : Installed an open-air sculpture 'Kalapravaham (Time Tide) at Mananchira Ground, Kozhikode, Kerala 2011 : Installed an open-air sculpture at Uttarayan, Santiniketan : Awarded KCS Panickar Puraskar, Govt. of Kerala 2010 : Worked on a large open-air sculpture in Goa, sponsored by Govt. of Goa : International Sculpture Symposium at Uttarayan Art Foundation, Baroda 2009 : Installed sculpture at TMI campus, France 2008 : Travel to Greece, sponsored by Popular Prakashan, Mumbai 2007 : 'Darpan' an exhibition sponsored by Nvya Gallery, New Delhi : Travel to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia - sponsored by Nvya Gallery 2006 : Travel to U.S.A., sponsored by Arts India, New York : Travel to Russia, sponsored by Art Resource Trust, Mumbai : Travel to Morocco, sponsored by Popular Prakashan, Mumbai 2005 : Travel to Istanbul, Turkey to attend artists workshop : Travel to China (Silk Route) sponsored by Uttarayan, Baroda : Travel to South Africa organised by Gallery Navya, New Delhi 2004 : Travel to Mauritius to attend artists workshop 2003 : Travel to Cairo and other cities in Egypt to attend an artists workshop : Travel to France and Italy sponsored by TMI Foundation France
2002 2001 2000 1999 1996 1995 1994
1991 1990 1989 1988 1986 1985 1984 1982 1981 1980
1978
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Exhibition titled 'Can' curated by Johny M.L Exhibition 'Only connect' at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi Exhibition 'Nayika' by Ganesha Art Gallery, New Delhi Exhibition at ABS Bayer Art Gallery, Baroda Installed sculptures at TMI Campus, France Travel to Thailand to attend the artists workshop at Pataya Attended Artist workshop, Coco Palms, Puri, Orissa 'Contemporary Woman' at HongKong Visual Arts Centre, HongKong International Workshop on Art & Architecture at Khajuraho, sponsored by Orient Express, New Delhi Installed open air sculptures at the TMI Campus, South of France Worked on the large bronzes for TMI, Denmark Installed sculptures at TMI (Time Manager International) Campus, Cotignac, France Exhibition organised by Salon International, de la Sculpture Contemporaine, at Nouveav Forum des Holies, Paris Hippodrome d'e longchamp, Paris Espace Michel Simon - Noisy le grand - France Worked at Studio Obsonvile, France Participated in Triennale, organised by LKA, New Delhi Sculpture Workshop at Kanoria Art Centre, Ahmedabad Travelled to London and Paris, sponsored by Ministry of External Affairs, GoI Installed Sculpture in India House, London, UK Executed Open Air Sculpture at Bikaner, sponsored by Urban Improvement Trust, Bikaner, Rajasthan Participated in Sculpture Workshop, Banaras Hindu University Awarded Junior Fellowship, by Ministry of Human Resources, GOI Worked at Lalit Kala Studios, Garhi, New Delhi Participated in National Exhibition of Art, organised by LKA, New Delhi Awarded Fellowship from Lalit Kala Academi (LKA), to work at Garhi Studios, New Delhi National Exhibition, organised by L.K.A, New Delhi Silver Jubilee Exhibition of Sculpture, Lalit Kala Academi (LKA), New Delhi Award - Birla Academi of Arts and Culture at the Annual Exhibition of Art Awarded National Scholarship, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India to work under Prof. Sarbari Roy Chaudhary and Shri. Ramkinkar Baij
Publications 2013 : Published a book on Jyotish Chakravarty, released on the occasion of exhibition 'Image of Jyotish Chakravarty' at Akar Prakar, Kolkata 2012 : Worked on a major publication on Shri. Ramkinkar Baij released on the occasion of Retrospective Exhibition of Ramkinkar at NGMA, New Delhi : Authored a book 'Ramkinkar's Yaksha Yakshi' 2010 : 'K.S. Radhakrishnan' a book in Malayalam language by Johny ML, published by Kerala Tourism, Government of Kerala 2009 : 'Liminal Figures Liminal Space' by Prof. R. Siva Kumar, published by Art Musings, Mumbai 2008 : 'Liminal Figures Liminal Space' by Raimi Gbadamosi and Prof. R. Siva Kumar, published by Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata 2006 : 'Freehold' by Dr. Geeti Sen, published by Art Alive, New Delhi : 'Freehold' by Ranjit Hoskote, published by Art Musings, Mumbai 2004 : 'K.S. Radhakrishnan' by Prof. R. Siva Kumar, published by TMI Foundation, France : 'The Ramp' by Prof. R. Siva Kumar, published by Art Alive, New Delhi; Tao Gallery, Mumbai and ABS Gallery, Baroda 2000 : 'Musui Maiya' by Prof. R. Siva Kumar, published by Vadhera Art Gallery, New Delhi
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