Young at Art

In 2003,Subodh Gupta had named his Ambassador car Doot. In 2007,Jitish Kallat opted for a skeletal and life-size design for his version of the car.

In 2003,Subodh Gupta had named his Ambassador car Doot. In 2007,Jitish Kallat opted for a skeletal and life-size design for his version of the car. Unlike the two senior artists,the name Neeraj Choudhary does not ring a bell,but the 21-year-old too,had hoped to create an impact with his interpretation of the Amby. Painted in white,with an unfinished,raw look,Choudharys fiberglass Amby was parked at the Delhi College of Art (DCA),as students of the college presented the institutes 58th annual exhibition. The exhibition ended on Wednesday.

Choudharys work,called Street Car Named Desire,had children dancing,discovering the car,and had red powder sprinkled around it. Several luxury cars are now available,but the Ambassador was associated with good quality for years, said Choudhary.

The students,pursuing their bachelors and masters degrees in art,had displayed thousands of works,and several frames occupied the walls,but it was the sculptures that created a strong impression.

If Prakash Yadav,an MFA student,had created an ink blue installation,with the head replaced with a loudspeaker,Manjeet Kumar,another MFA student,had a Ved Gupta-ish dog soaked in red. Rajesh Ram,a final year MFA student,had two young boys playing with guns in his sculpture called Khel Khel Mein. Games played during childhood could give a wrong message to the children, says Ram,adding that in his village in Jharkhand,Naxalites often target the young.

Ram is already an up-and-coming name in the art circuit,his work having been showcased at the Delhi-based Latitude 28 and Anant Art Gallery and 1×1 Gallery in Dubai,Saatchi Gallery,London,and India Art Summit,2011,among others. Charging an average of R 2 lakh for canvases and R 3-4 lakh for installations,he had chosen not to put his works on sale at the annual exhibition. Violence also featured in the work of another final year MFA student,Neetu Choudhari,whose work titled Borders and Bullets depicted terrorism,with bullets used to make boundaries in maps. No one is free,there are arms everywhere, she said,about the work priced at R 80,000.

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