a cup of fog in summer

a cup of fog in summer

KHOJ PEERS 2011

Editor: Aparna Singh (critic-in-residence) Designer: Korou Khundrakpam

Politicizing Visuals I regard t his gathering a nd t he s tudio space a s an active platform for interesting experimental work in any medium. It can be art or non-art and to create a more i nformal experience o f art, which can be touched and smelled. We’ve been talking, travelling and working together for the past thirty days in this space. The ideas that emerged around this residency are m ostly peripheral i n terms of so-called art theory and practice. The i nter-related i ntellectual dialectics opened u p a new horizon i n terms of ideology. And discourse on many established politics and m ethodologies happened during t his time that lead t o an i nquisitiveness o f what could or should work in practice.

Visuals are not mere visuals. They come from and go with many interpretations and established concepts.

So each v isual i s politically charged. A rt can be personal but w hat m akes a person’s ‘ personal’ is political. For example, t he behavioral pattern o f a boy and/or a g irl in one’s childhood i s later recognized as a stereotype and that forms the seed for gender politics. The dress code o f women in j ob sectors, initially in the west now spreading to India, is surely a reflection of t he politics of patriarchal society e.g. H eels in w omen’s w ear. This residency became a stage t o politicize and reread contemporary visual arts in different perspectives.

Curatorial practice is a b lurred area t o most young academic students. The pedagogy of art history poses a crucial question of accessibility and practice. With this background, this residency became a space to develop certain empirical knowledge and experiences for young peers. This residency analyzes the notion of interaction amongst d ifferent artists t o create inter-cultural dialogue, t he curatorial e fforts and possibilities, t he concept o f “interdisciplinary practice� and new m edia in contemporary art.

We are i n a foggy cup, w ith f oggy i deologies a nd t he summer outside m ight c lear i t up. B ut w hen people from the summer enter this cup, their strong ideologies can b e shaken a nd m aybe t hey w ill experience something new.

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Aparna Singh (critic-in-residence) MFA in Art History from Kalabhavan, Santiniketan

Aarti Sunder

Aarti Sunder s tudied fine arts at R achna Sansad College i n Bombay. S ince t hen she has w orked on different elements such as sets, props, installations, and posters. She w orks w ith i maginary characters, which she has created and loves them as if they were real. This can b e read a s an i magination which extends to reality, or reality transformed into a kind of i magination, o r simply t he f antasy o f the artist.

The characters; Pig, Green Butterfly, Blue Insect, etc. are i ntimate and are a m etaphor o f many t hings i n her life. But one can perceive t his metaphor a s a response to certain politics. And so it is hard to read the work as simple illustrations or fables.

When I say political, it i s because o f her a wareness and anxiety o n political i ssues (but i n terms of humanity). Now she is working with sculptural forms of these characters in a different environment and is discussing the condition of being uncomfortable while waiting for something, v ibrantly. It s trongly questions t he physical and m ental e xistence o f humans with very minimal forms.

Pallavi Singh

Pallavi S ingh completed h er M aster o f Fine A rt i n Painting from College Of Art, Delhi. Even though she works from her daily life experience, both direct and indirect ( in D elhi), h er autoerotic m en and m oral women ask e nough controversial questions. The intrusion shown in her works is a dogged entering of one’s existence and questions one’s right to live. The sexual appetite o f old men who t ry t o be i nnocent kids, w rapped i n humor and sarcasm, make the viewer laugh but emphasize the fact that civilization is a lie, nothing more!

The w orks might doubt t he u niversal validity o f the male gaze- whether t he gaze i s always m ale or whether i t is m erely dominant among t he range o f different gazes t hat i nclude t he f emale gaze? H er works bring a platform for diverging discourses a nd interpretations.

Kundo Yumnam Kundo Yumnam, from Manipur started her studies in the arts with a degree in fashion designing from NIFT Delhi and later joined Lasalle College of Arts, Singapore, as a student of bachelors in painting. Her works take references from the works of people like John Lennon and Yoko Ono to popular advertisement posters, w hich are i nterpreted w ith certain rationality and present day relevance. And many of her works question the usage of words like ‘real’, ‘reality’, etc. in popular visual culture. Kundo has a strong quest for knowledge and her curiosity is instinctive in nature a nd i t somewhere converges with t he a tmosphere o f anti- nationalist protests, class politics, etc. of the place she belongs to.

The existence o f any r igid system i n this w orld is mostly because o f mythologies, w hich d iscourage rationality, curiosity a nd encourages censorship.

Now as a n artist having political and cultural awareness, s he i s trying t o explore t he politics of religious stories, mythologies and folklore; and their grey t actics to e ngrave certain beliefs and notions which shape the entire humanity and tie them under a certain system.

Muthiah Kasi

Muthiah Kasi did his diploma in communication design from DJ A cademy of D esign a nd h is i nterest suffuses t o animation, design, printmaking, graphic design, etc. He is i nspired b y typography and designs o f street artists and folk t emples o f his small town i n Tamil N adu a nd takes references for his Design related works.

The force of modernization and modernity compels us to lead a m echanical life, which u nfortunately costs the person – h is/her life, dreams, desires and l ove a nd pushes h im/her i nto a monotonous life. Moreover, t he norms and beliefs of our society discourage a person to live in adventure and diversity. Muthiah is working on his concept o f monotony which bolts dreams and passions together, t ransforming a human i nto a machine. H e is m aterializing this i deology b y using machines a nd canvases. And t he m achine can be conceived as a strong metaphor of mechanical life and monotony.

Praveen Goud

Praveen G oud i s trained as a printmaker f rom M SU Vadodara. H e is e xploring t exture a nd m aking t hree dimensional forms with grid patterned paper. H is works often trace the ‘action’ behind the process and the action ends at the psychological fact behind it. His earlier prints and serigraphs t ell the story a nd experiences o f his migration from t he v illage t o the cities and issues o f identities in a m odernized environment. N ow h e is experimenting with v ideos and sound.