Indian artists shine at Shanghai art fair
The first edition of the Shanghai Contemporary, a contemporary art fair in China, featured several artists from India, including Jitish Kallat, Tushar Joag, Bharti Kher, Atul Dodiya, NS Harsha, Zarina Hashmi, Ravikumar Kashi, Valay Shende, Anant Joshi, and Mithu Sen. Works by New York based Rina Banerjee, Surendran Nair, Hema Upadhyay, Jagannath Panda and Sudarshan Shetty also formed part of this prestigious art event.
Pierre Huber, the curator of the section ‘Best of Discovery’ for the event in China hosted in September 2007, visited several artist studios all over Asia to put together a collection of the contemporary creation, representing various trends. He mentioned in a curatorial note that the goal was not to show only what is fashionable about art at the moment, but also to assign a serious position, to present new interesting art and artists.
According to him, the goal was to introduce contemporary Asian art and artists into the global art scene, and to offer to the collectors the possibility of exciting new discoveries. Shanghai Contemporary definitely achieved its objective, and served as a perfect platform for galleries, artists, art collectors, experts and enthusiasts.
Artist Jitish kallat presented a work, drawn from his famous series of Rickshawpolis. Constructed of fiberglass, it morphs between a rickshaw and a stripped-down, bony skeleton in simulation of an extinct species. It’s a life size recreation of a rickshaw, through ‘simulated bones’ akin to the restructured remains of a pre-historic species on display in a museum.
It’s the artist’s take on the impact of daily traffic jams - rendered as a victim, caught in the crossfire of a sectarian riot; or the carcass of a dumped automobile in the rapidly changing Indian streetscape.
Another Indian artist whose works were displayed at the ‘Shanghai Contemporary’ was painter Anant Joshi who is also known for his installation works. Anant Joshi’s creations revolve around the theme of cultural displacement and urban alienation whereas N.S. Harsha’s figurative and narrative paintings are a byproduct of his personal sojourns, experiences, photographs and public images culled drawn from the media. The artist, like a chronicler, depicts the life in India’s throbbing towns.
In her work, Bharti Kher assembles a wide range of images and artifacts culled from immediate surroundings. Her over-arching subject can be said to be identity, both that of individuals and that of communities. Her experiences as a part of the Indian Diaspora are at the core of her work. Born in London in 1969, she moved to New Delhi in 1993
On other hand, artist Mithu Sen’s work is driven by her concerns regarding issues of interiority and femininity with a touch of eroticism. During her decade-long artistic career, she has drawn sexuality from living and inanimate objects with both political acumen and sensitivity.
The three Indian artists, namely Ravikumar Kashi, Sharmila Samant and Shilpa Gupta, were also featured. Ravikumar Kashi mounted there his unconventional paper sculptures. He took over almost a year to conceptualize and finish the works ‘City without end’ and ‘Any moment now’.
His latest body of works demonstrates a highly refined reaction to the happenings things around him as well as his own urban life. He has stated in an interview, “I have the habit of collecting interesting photos, image clippings, discarded objects, headlines, quotations and the like. I suppose one can think of me as a visual scavenger. This becomes an archive/source of imagery when I start working.”
Another artist on view, Sharmila Samant has successfully employed new media for expressing herself, tackles sensitive issues of identity within a global context, looking at the homogenising effect of commodification in relation to developing economies. Shilpa Gupta’s work on view was an interactive video projection in which the screen initiates a surreal game between the visitor and the projected image.
Audience’s shadows become an active part of the projection (via live camera capture) while they are overlapping with the ready-made shadow figures emerging from the projection. As the sounds of water rise, a figure emerges, doubles up and feeds itself. While the viewer looks, it reappears from the side and dives inside the viewer’s body, only to start walking out of it.
The shadows multiply, their walks becomes brisk, intense and turns into an aggressive march over sounds of songs, chimes, and bells which overlap to grow louder and louder, transforming and intense confrontational chaos ensues. Silence falls. At this time, the figure jumps from the top onto the viewer’s head and the latter tries to dodge and jump in real, physical space; the absurdity is magnified by the apparent absence of the figure in reality.
