Comrades in Art

Fashion,when uninhibited by the forces of business and utilitarianism,conveys a personal aesthetic. In an innovative show,titled Convergence — Art and Fashion,organised by Anu Bajaj of Art Positive,20 renowned fashion designers and artists have come together at the Visual Arts Gallery,India Habitat Centre. The concept is novel yet simple: the artist has forayed into designing garments and the designer is dabbling in art. Both have produced two pieces of work,one in art and the other in fashion. The names on the roster include artists like Satish Gupta,Pooja Bahri,Seema Kohli and designers Manish Arora,JJ Valaya and Shilpa Chavan. The show is on until November 30 at the Visual Arts Gallery,after which it moves to Art Positive gallery in Lado Sarai.

Suman Vadhera,a retired child counselor,was clearly impressed by what she called “a risque and modern attempt” at art,when she edged towards designer Varun Sardana’s creation: two mannequins facing each other,their lips painted a shade of Russian red,their bodies suggestively interwined. There was fashion too — a hitched-up ruffled black skirt. “I have tried fusing together the concepts of couture as art and art as a separate entity,” defended the Delhi-based Sardana. The worlds of art and fashion ally in couture but the humble tee-shirt too had its moment in the spotlight through sculptor Ravi Kumar Kashi’s work. The artist attempted to reveal what we hide underneath our clothes— bleeding hearts and tired lungs were painted on cotton,jute fibre and paper torsos. The tee-shirts took off from there: the heart was hand-painted with waterproof ink on a white tee-shirt for mass consumption. “Fashion and art are both creative processes,but they will remain distant from each other until both are available for middle class consumption,” hypothesised the sculptor.

Mayank Mansingh Kaul,a textile designer and Gayatri Khoj,an assistant curator at Khoj Studios in Khirkee Extension stood admiring Little Shilpa’s hats. Towering above them was a pregnant mannequin playing housewife,also a creation of the Goa-based designer. Attached to her frame were dustpans and toilet bowl cleaners and ironically,suspended in front of her was a mirror. “Your mind is busy,you are tired and over-worked,but you will still want a mirror in front of you,if you are a woman,” laughed the petite Chavan.