REDEEMING THE ELUSIVE - a group art exhibition by vijayaraghavan srinivasan

REDEEMING THE ELUSIVE a

g r o u p

a r t

e x h i b i t i o n

THE ARPANA ART GALLERY, NEW DELHI | 2019 JANUARY 16 - 24

Merlin Ebenezer

Vijayaraghavan.S

Kelly Reedy

A few shall see what none yet understands; God shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep; For man shall not know the coming till its hour And belief shall be not till the work is done… Sri Aurobindo Savitri Artistic integrity stems from an act of seeing. The act of seeing probes into the realms of causation as to what is lost, what is hidden, what is ignored, what is denied, what is excluded and what is inconceivable. The need to redeem the ‘elusive’ drives the artistic ethos of the three artists featured in the group

“hell-metted” fiber glass , 12”x12”x18” in, 2013 © Merlin

exhibition ‘Redeeming the elusive’ from 16th through 24th January 2019 at

existence and unpacks the bleak, multi-layered narrative of human existence

The Arpana Art Gallery, New Delhi. What adds a new dimension is the

where pain is the prime mover in the hands of the perpetrators to rupture the

nuanced way the ‘elusive’ is centralised through associations, images and

fabric of human bonding, pushing the humanity into a hinterland manned by Eliotesque Hollow Men. What can redeem the status quo is the fruition of

symbols. Without entering into a self-reflexive communion with the political and the metaphysical, the temporal and the eternal, the conscious and the

humanness, the humane touch and its unconditional call. Merlin’s work,

unconscious, such a compelling appeal to the recovery of artistic truth and

dovetailing the past and the future, is unapologetic in questioning the efficacy

integrity displayed by Merlin Ebenezer (New Delhi), Kelly Reedy (USA/

of ideological and institutional logic in sustaining human values. These works

Singapore) and Vijayaraghavan.S (Hyderabad) in their inimitable style would not have been possible. The trio of artists commands the attention of gallery

are wary of the forces of duplicity and deceit that inhibit the path of humanness. Her retrieval of humanism believes in the potential of human

viewers and critics in forging new pathways to socio-political, psychological

worth in building bonds of synthesis where truth can breathe freely, where

and cultural consciousness of the angst-ridden, fear-scarred, post-truth that

truth exudes a palpable candour and where truth charts its own terrain.

pours into our lives ad infinitum. The act of seeing is also an act of seeking! What renders a richer understanding of the crisis of humanness is Merlin’s

Merlin’s sculptures are incisive socio-political critiques. She poses questions of

forthright yet subtle study of socio-political minds; she deconstructs the

megalomania, moral culpability and collective guilt. Her works attempt to

travesty of democracy and deplores war-mongering and passive posturing

probe into the epistemology of emotion and grapple with the questions of

against violence. Democracy sans humanness is what ruffles the sculptor and

struggle and survival. Her visual language reads into the pragmatics of

her works aim at creating an immediacy for a corrective - pluralism to outflank sectarianism and ideological dogmatism in the face of compulsive

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existence and unpacks the bleak, multi-layered narrative of

REDEEMING T H E E L U S I V E - by Sudeep Ghosh

fixation - aggression, absolutism and antipathy posing searing questions of ethics and existence as the heinous tentacles of political jingoism grips

democratic minds.

The crisis of humanness exposes dysfunctional democracy gravitating to ideological

narcissism. What is the process of weaning off? Merlin envisions a world where differences exist with a sense of reciprocity and respect. What redeems the cultures across the globe, fighting and falling apart, is the sense of conscientious humanism. To her, the slackening of individual desire is a corollary to the harnessing of inner energy. The glass video done by stop-motion shows the merging of the small and the big centric circles in a process of intermingling and dissolving, not to outwit or outgrow. What appeals to the ethos of this process is the interplay of love and compassion in all their diverse manifestations. Her work offers a version of humanness as an antidote to today’s malady: transcendence through the overpowering of

"Still from Mindscapes" video installation, dimensions variable 2015 © Kelly

individual ego. It also interrogates the nature of silence, calculated and contrived, for

emblematic of disinterestedness. Kelly, alluding to the Asian Vedantic abundance and its mystic urges, longs to puzzle out the intrigues of human existence. Her work is a journey from the breathless whirlwind of action to the silent and solitary stroll within the sanctum of one’s ‘kindled’ being.

self-serving ends and blind allegiance. She is critical of the silence of the intelligentsia which creates an illusion of reality, fails to register its fearless voice of protest in times of distress and succumbs to political heavyweights or personal fear psychosis. Merlin’s works continue to draw viewers’ attention by raking up the festering wounds of

erosion and sculpting the enduring stimuli of nurturance. Kelly, artist, educator and art psychotherapist, is inspired by Carl G. Jung and her works speak eloquently of the unconscious, and the levels of consciousness in its symbolic perception of reality. Her images emerge from the unconscious of their own volition and merge with the conscious mind. Kelly’s works liberate the drives for the human psyche to unveil the self, suffering and seeking, and unleash the inner energies with a view to striving for the luminous unity of wholeness. Her works elicit beauty that is subliminal and seek to reconcile with an inner reading of one’s discerning self. It shows how art is individually adaptive and calls for the deft intervention of contemplative refinement to enter into the recesses of inner poise. It is a Yeatsian gaze ‘there is no truth/Saving in thine own heart’ into the discovery of the truth of inwardness. The inwardness is redemptive in nature by catching glimpses through the veil of pauses; the stirrings of the impalpable are felt under a wash of real light.

Integrated with dreams, the individual certitude is teased out in a meditative process emblematic of disinterestedness.

Her search for the inner poise and placidity begins with the self and permeates the other. Individuality, rooted in tradition, attempts to stimulate the evolving phases of life. Kelly is concerned not just with the historical past and its consequent psychological perceptions but also with the physical present with its healing dynamics. Her mixed media collages and videos are replete with inter-cultural symbols. Her meditative excursion into the human psyche nurtures ‘inner poise’ to subdue all that feeds off psychological itches. The higher objective is to improve the quality of human relationship by letting the self dissolve into the being of the other. Kelly’s enthralling body of works appeals to reflexive awareness in its yearning for wholeness. The sublime poise it exudes aims at redeeming the frontiers – inner and outer in today’s eclipse of truth to unearth a sub-textual meaning. The intent is to bridge the binaries, the blurring between the conscious and the unconscious and sustain the synergy of regeneration. 02

"inner exist" inkjet print on premium lustre fine art paper 24x16 inches 2018 © Vijay

Animated by an undying spirit of experimentation, Vijay’s works are overt repercussions of how populist arguments glorify rabid nationalism and rampant surveillance. He tries to deflate subtle yet brazen political braggadocio that thrives on unmitigated fear and holds the spirit of freedom to ransom.

His digital art on archival pigment print on paper is a political allegory and a blatant critique of today’s benighted state of unsparing chauvinism feeding the masses with the fallacies of egalitarian democracy and religious solecism. The trauma of blood-splashed assault, juxtaposed with political and sexual overtones, brings out the homicidal streaks in abhorrent crimes. Vijay’s work is a symbolic hedge or filter against the perpetual orgy of deceit and disguise that masks the false trappings of ideologies. At a deeper level, it exposes the artist’s self-tormenting conflict between fear and angst. Vijay is tormented by questions of morality and propriety in the face of paradoxical double reality. With the biting sharpness of Juvenalian satire, his art rips into uncompromising bigots who revel in outrageous extremism and are hell bent on reducing nationalism to regionalism for political gains. How can the fanatic illusions of gentrified minds be reined in? What happens when self-styled zealots are let loose? Can the schizophrenic existence be controlled? Vijay’s satiric acerbity is directed at the untamed normalization of inhuman atrocities and his art seeks a creative retribution for perpetrators sunk in slumberous nonchalance. Memory is a compelling motif in Vijay’s art. The untroubled calm of nostalgia is decoded against the backdrop of urbanization. The menace of constant flux is captured through childhood memories of sleep. The stop-motion technique brings out the inescapable throbbing of the urban space that lies beneath and within the consciousness of our diurnal reality. Vijay attempts to salvage the tyranny of memory – memory

– memory that is consigned to the commotion of the external world, memory that is but a flimsy veneer of existence, memory that is benumbed by city-bred clamour thrumming through urban brains. What seeps out of the human pores is the disembodied voice of oppressive mechanization. In his works, the body is a metaphor, an automaton and a meditative space. One wonders if the artist foresees an unforeseen anti-climax! His art is existential in its intent as it creates a spatio-temporal world of claustrophobia; what sharpens its ironic edge is the human-induced dynamics spilling into the urban sprawl. Cityscape, soaked into the swaggering sway of desire and technology, creates a narrative of impasse where alienation of speech and discursive framing of bodies evoke an ominous aura through increasing levels of post-modern ideological thickness. Vijay is able to visualize what is exiled from the rational and resorts to artistic fusion with an iconoclastic panache. Tapping into the inherent, the intervening, the intruding, the intractable and the impending, the trio produces works which not only yield an incantatory power by (re)defining the language of artistic ethos and idiom but also provoke debates over loss and recovery, art and truth, context and connotation, style and expression and, undeniably, leave indelible imprints on the minds of gallery viewers, art enthusiasts and critics. The artistic taxonomy of the trio of artists echoes the words of Yeats: ‘It’s certain there is no fine thing/ Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring.’ The labour is the act of seeking alternative ways to nurture and recover the elusive, the labour is the appeal to the universal conscience of the time which is trapped in ‘a paralysis of consciousness’ (Azar Nafisi), the labour is the assertion of the intrinsic value of artistic enquiry into foreseeable possibilities of redemption.

My works are my personal inquires of society and its realities. The stories of past and present culture and beliefs inside the political unrest bring forth new policies and amendments that become obscure and alien. Though living inside this with a displaced identity, art gives me a chance, a challenge and strength to understand the people and their stories of living - living at times as humans and at times as beasts. These works trigger dialogues - at times questioning, at times lamenting and at times resisting. Though I present these visual statements here as artworks, the need is to extend and elaborate these activities, to consciously think about the middle class and the working class of our urban and rural societies that constitute our political minds, more democratic and inclusive, and accept pluralism. This exposition focuses and urges to redeem compassion that we forgot in the process of competing loathing and longing. Here, I present these creative discourses evolved as questions and statements of a prevailing war culture to bring forth a conscious effort in understanding and interpreting what we lost as humans.

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MERLIN E b e n e z e r

“roots” fiber glass and iron, 12” x 6” x4.5” in, 2013 © Merlin

“black & white” stretchable interactive work, wire & fiber glass, 60”x36”in, 2013 © Merlin

“power point 1” fiber glass , 36” x 6” x4” in, 2013 © Merlin

“cutting edge reality” fiber glass, 12” x 6” x4.5”in, 2013 © Merlin

“12 silences” fiber glass , 15”x12” in, 2013 © Merlin

“hell-metted” fiber glass , 12”x12”x18” in, 2013 © Merlin

All about transparency, Stop motion animation, Single channel video projection, 00:01:30 sec, 2013 © Merlin Description: The work speak on Love and compassion. the big and small allowing each other to enter its own space , also merging with the surrounding as well as the faraway land. To practice these aspects of humanness one have to overpower ones own ego and practice what is pluralism.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEQJ-K0tBuA “of blood and veins and flesh ” fiber glass , 15”x12” in, 2013 © Merlin

Visual artist Kelly Reedy has always felt compelled to search for and express a deeply personal vision of beauty. It is not a beauty that lies on the surface, but one that transcends or breaks with all preconceived notions, invoking the depths of the subconscious mind. After moving to Singapore, a long-standing interest in Byzantine and Medieval icons fused with a high regard for Asian folk art. Kelly has researched traditional art practices across Asia and the psychological underpinnings found in their rituals uses. Her mixed media artworks have been influenced by the rich symbolism embedded in these art forms and the therapeutic benefits attached to their creation. Kellyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest mixed media collages and videos layer cross-cultural imagery, archetypes, and memories, blurring the lines of time and place.

03/ U S A / S i n g a p o r e

KELLY REEDY "Still from Mindscape", video installation, dimensions variable 2015 ÂŠ Kelly

"Witnessâ&#x20AC;? mirrors and acrylic paint, dimensions variable 2019 ÂŠ Kelly

"Still from Mirror Image'" single channel video projection 00:04:21sec In collaboration with Vijayaraghavan S (video artist) and Ankit Suri (composer) 2017 ÂŠ Kelly

Link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/_-rK3zs7Zn8

"Snare", etching and mixed media on paper, 50cm x 50cm 2010 ÂŠ Kelly

"Still from Mirror Image", single channel video projection, 00:04:21sec, 2017 ÂŠ Kelly

"Still from Mindscape", video installation, dimensions variable 2015 ÂŠ Kelly

"Mirror Image Inspirations", digital art in fine art paper, 2017,ÂŠ Kelly

From an innate private space, I tried to exploit the potential of socio-political, personal and emotional expressions raised over self-ideology and consciousness through my artworks. During this exhibition, I intend to unfold the sheets of imagery containing the menace of urbanization through the images of human body becoming the topography of urban sounds, boredom, automobiles, communication and so on. I have used my own body parts in my coherent body of artworks which reflect our unconscious being, colonized by motorization, mechanization and urbanization, deforming the habitual and the mundane. I have attempted to externalize the schizophrenia of the contemporary every day. It is our voice to regenerate, re-create, re-question the human ethos and attitude in the urban scenario.

04/ H y d e r a b a d | I n d i a

VIJAYARAGHAVAN 16

techno avatar | digital Art, epson inkjet print on canson photo art pro canvas, 52x31â&#x20AC;? inches. 2018 ÂŠ vijayaraghavan.s

“agony of protector” epson inkjet print on hahmemuhle fine art paper photo rag archived print 17x20 in, 2013 © vijayaraghavan.s 19

“Story of desire against desire “ digital Art, fine art print on epson enhanced matte, polytypic, each 24x16”inches. 2019 © Vijayaraghavan.s

Techno avatar - 1 | animated single channel video projection. Duration: 00:28:00 seconds, 2016 © Vijayaraghavan.S Link: https://vimeo.com/202266381

Towards the end of the Second World War, Enrico Piaggio was driven by the idea of offering the widest possible market a low-cost product. With this idea in mind, the factory at Biella produced a motor-scooter. I found in the body of LML Vespa a strong connection with my nativity and popular image across the globe. I integrated multiple hand gestures with signs and symbols of Indian idols into a single channel animated video. The movement and repeated action explore how the commodification of industrialised world and human actions impact mundane life. It displays how we are commodified, tortured in mindless conflicts against violation, political intolerance, sexual impulse in urban modernity and the pains of urban development perpetually.

“wake up me | acorda me” SCVP, Duration: 00:01:20 seconds, Year: 2013 Link: https://vimeo.com/67425008 Photo Credit: Sergio Gomes, Fonlad Festival, Coimbra, Portugal | Sound Design: Badrinath

Description: In scvp WAKE UP ME | ACORDA ME: I intend to unfold the sheets of imagery containing the menace of urbanization through the images of hu-man body becoming the topography of urban sounds, automobiles, communication and so on. I filmed my own body in the way I used to sleep in my childhood with the help of stop motion technique. The sleep is a natural phenomenon that is essential to life systems; it is the very nature of sleep that is being transformed today with our unconscious being colonized by the motorization, mechanization and urbanization that has deformed even the habitual and mundane. I have attempted to externalize the schizophrenia of the contemporary every day in this work. WAKE UP ME! It is our voice to regenerate, re-create the habitual in the urban scenario.

Merlin Ebenezer Visual Artist, painter, sculptor and ceramist, (born Trivendram, Kerala, India 1961) holds a BSc Ceramic Design, Govt. College of Arts & Crafts Chennai. She got prestigious awards and participated in numerous art exhibitions in India and abroad. The notably 41st National Exhibition of Art, New Delhi, Gift for India SAHAMAT, New Delhi, AIFACS Exhibition, New Delhi, VIII TRIENNIAL, INDIA. New Delhi and Pixels of Identities Laura Haber Gallery, Argentina. She received Tamil Nadu State award for sculpture in 1982, fellowship in Kanoria Centre for arts, Ahmedabad and senior fellowship from HRD Ministry of Government of India. Currently the artist runs a place ‘Indus art collective’ a group of artists from different creative platforms to help and promote artists and their Visual Artist/Sculptor | New Delhi/India merlinmoli@gmail.com | 09650972932 activities, creating new openings ands opportunities.

Merlin Ebenezer

Born in Madurai, India, in 1981, S. Vijayaraghavan is a visual artist, video artist, painter and photographer. He holds an MFA in painting from the College of Art in New Delhi and has also participated in an advanced studio art program at the Berlin Art Institute, Berlin. He has had major exhibitions and has participated in various shows and biennials internationally, and across the country. Some notable exhibitions were held at the Lily Agius Gallery, Malta, CCA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK, Casablanca International Video Art Festival, Sarai Reader ‘09 curated by the Raqs Media Collective in collaboration with Devi Art Foundation and Sarai CSDS and supported by the Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi. He currently lives and works in India. For more information visit his website: Visual Artist/Painter | Hyderabad/India http://vijaysvhavan.wix.com/vijay

Vijayaraghavan.S vijay.svhavan@gmail.com | 09176780708

05/BIOGRAPHY

Kelly Reedy’s passion for art history and culture has taken her around the world. After completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the USA in 1985, she spent the next seven years traveling extensively in Europe, North America and India, while basing her art practice out of Paris and New York City. She has lived in Singapore since 1997 where she works as an artist, educator and art therapist. Her artwork has been shown internationally in Paris, Chicago, Berlin and Jogyakarta, as well as locally at the Esplanade, the Singapore Tyler Print Institute, and the Alliance Française. She is currently a part-time lecturer in the MA Art Therapy programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, an educational consultant for the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, MA, AThR, MA Ed, BFA| USA/Singapore as well as runs a private art therapy practice at www.kellyreedy.com | www.artworks.sg ArtWorks.

Kelly Reedy

Sudeep Ghosh is ToK Coordinator and faculty in the English department at The Aga Khan Academy Hyderabad (India). His pedagogical articles, poems, research papers, translations and art criticisms have appeared in international journals like Aesthetica Magazine (UK), Le Dame Art Gallery (UK), Canadian Literature (University of British Columbia, Canada), Wasafiri (Open University, London). Indian publications include Teacher Plus, Indian Literature (Sahitya Akademy), Penguin Books, The Knowledge Review, Families (Fulbright Alumni journal), The Statesman, The Telegraph,

The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Brown Critique, Poetry Today, Phoenix, Gandhian Perspectives, Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Sahara Time, Kavya Bharati. New Global India, The Book Review, Apurva University Research Journal, BHU), Poetry Review. Muse India.

Sudeep Ghosh art critic, poet and translator | Hyderabad (India) sudeepmailsu@gmail.com | +91 8978892697

text by © sudeep ghosh | sudeepmailsu@gmail.com artworks, videos, installation © merlin | merlinmoli@gmail.com artworks, videos, prints, installation © Kelly | www.kellyreedy.com | www.artworks.sg artworks, videos, prints, © vijay | vijay.svhavan@gmail.com catalogue design © vijay The Arpana Art Gallery, 4/6, August Kranti Marg, Siri Institutional Area, Siri Fort Institutional Area, Siri Fort, New Delhi, Delhi 110049 , India