Back Story

While some artists showed a preference for contemporary art,others quoted tradition,and as the chief guest Krishen Khanna observed,“Some of the best art has come from experimenting”.

The youngest of the lot,Nagamurti Pareet,24,has rendered a canvas that captures the destruction of a 100-year-old heritage site,the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai,that went up in flames during the 26/11 terror attack. “I have painted a crow flying towards the Taj. It appears like a bad omen,but it also has a wing of green,which signifies hope. I wanted to depict how the destruction wrought by the attacks are being salvaged,” says Pareet. His other work is an installation that is a dig at the new budget. “Mobile phones and vegetables have been placed in the same price slab,” he says,pointing at his work — a large colour print of vegetables,displayed like phones in a store,while mobile phones lie in baskets,like vegetables in the market.

The team’s restoration work in Ladakh has led 28-year-old Joyoti Roy to take some arresting black-and-white images. “I was inspired by the face of children in the hilly terrain. Their relationship with the harsh landscape sculpts their features and builds their character,” says Roy.

Pankaj Sharma has chosen to muse on the female mystique,celebrating qualities of receptivity and acceptance on the outside,while the hidden qualities of womanhood remain shrouded under a BE brand sign. “I have never claimed to be able to figure out women,but they continue to fascinate me,” says Sharma. “We hope to make this an annual event,” says SK Misra,chairman of INTACH. One can look forward to more from the backroom team.

The exhibition is on at India International Centre till April 7.