A Woman8217;s Word

The cities are changing and so is the quality of life in the metros. They are losing their local character, their identity. They are now ...

The cities are changing and so is the quality of life in the metros. They are losing their local character, their identity. They are now all going under blocks of concrete. All is not well 8212; we have failed to learn from history.

Fortunately, though, it is only the cities that are changing. The people are not. We still have and will always have a cosmopolitan mixture of language, religion and culture. What makes the city of Mumbai truly unique is this culture that has evolved from the many different cultures that have passed and are still passing through it. These cultures have got so entwined that it would be impossible to segregate them.

For an artist it is a paradise to work in such a city. Everything is out there in the open to see, to smell, to hear, to feel, to learn. There are people everywhere, going about their work, some sleeping, some playing, some watching, some dreaming8230;

Mumbai is a patchwork of contrasts and contradiction. Of hope and despair, of glitter and glamour; but there is also adark seedy side to it. There are tragedies, comedies, love and hate, good and evil, heroes and villains, all existing side by side. There are mock fights and real fights. There are real shootouts and fake shootouts. There are real lovers and fake lovers, and thanks to popular cinema culture, many of us do not know where the false ends and real begins!

The artist8217;s work, caught between these tensions, is to make some sense of the chaos around. It would be impossible for any one artist to unearth the mysteries of the city. Some work with private space, some with public space.

The artist has to struggle to come to turns with himself. He has his own dreams and aspirations, which are linked to the city. He loves it and fears it, he wants to run away and yet be a part of it. He feels free and trapped at the same time.

The only escape for some of us is our work.

Six Degrees Of Separation

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Six ways of painting meet in the The Tale of Six Cities. The art exhibition hangs together the voices ofsix women artists who were all born in the 8217;50s and who now live and create in India8217;s most vibrant urban centres. Their work draws from their urban and urbane surroundings and mirror the concerns of those born in the crucible of Independence. Arpana Caur, Jayashree Chakravarty, Sheela Gowda, Rekha Rodwittiya, Vasudha Thozhur and Shrilekha Sikander rub shoulders at the exhibition, mapping Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Vadodra, Chennai and Mumbai. Said Arshiya Lokhandwala of Lakeeren, quot;We looked at a cross-section of artists born in a particular generation after Independence to put a finger on their pulse and see how they were faring.quot;

The artists8217; personal histories run deep in their works; yet, the concerns are social, historical and sometimes feminist. Arpana Caur8217;s women are caught up in the whirl of the past and the Delhi smog, Shrilekha Sikander8217;s Art Cafe speculation of Mumbai complements Jayashree Chakravarty8217;s more abstract images of limitless journeys. The exhibition records the voices of womenwhose journeys have often run parallel to that of India itself, and whose styles have made them formidable forces in art today.

At Lakeeren Art Gallery, Vile Parle West. Till January 30. Time: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.