Gallery in the Open

Yoko Ono’s Touch is one of the highlights. The project was launched by Ono way back in 1969 with husband and musician John Lennon,and uses advertising as its medium. It has a blank white board with the word “Touch” translated into Hindi as sparsh. Then there is Rashid Rana’s Translation/Transliteration,a work comprising micro and macro images of various types of visuals.

The fair also has works that lend a non-commercial,art-for-arts’-sake element. Autonomous Public Laboratory,is one such work and the only science installation at the Fair,with an accessible tomb-like observatory made of mesh and rods and a series of do-it-yourself science projects. Set up by a team from Srishti School of Arts,Design and Technology,Bangalore,along with Toronto-based artist Yashas Shetty,the set-up has used surveillance cameras and microscopes made with wood,leaves,balloons and pieces of the building game ‘Mechanics’. “The whole intention is to demystify science,” said Meena Vari,coordinator for experimental art at the school.

Another work on site is a geometric structure,which first-time exhibitor at the IAF,German artist Clemens Behr created in two days. Known for creating structures in public spaces all over the world,Behr’s debut art project,called Delhi Tent,is a version of his experience in India. “I always play with the surroundings,architecture shapes and colours and merge them with my own impression of the country,” said Behr.

Another interesting installation is artist Siddhartha Kararwal’s work titled Hangover Man. Put up outside the exhibition hall,the work is a horse and a rider wrapped in several strips of white cloth. “It’s made of 200 shirts,which are rejects and have travelled around the world. I have wrapped them around the horse and its rider to make a maharaja image out of it,” says Karawal.

Artist Asim Waqif,whose work is a tree with shopping bags and handbags hanging from it,has the public safety audio announcement edited and playing in the background. Titled Lawaaris Vastu,it announces the loss of baggage by “dil ka police”. “It is more like a critique of artwork being treated as a commodity and the commercialisation of art. Anyone who goes in there cannot touch the work. The audio has been edited with some words in public safety warnings replaced by funny words,” says Waqif.