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Journalism of Courage
Lakeeren8217;s new exhibition, Altered Altar, is like a strong gush of new blood in the city8217;s art world. A huge injection of energy, titled so because it promises to redefine what is generally held sacred. It is a group show of new works by three artists who have graduated from J J in recent years.
When you walk in, a television on a tall stand is looking at you directly and you look back in disbelief. It is a video of a woman being waxed, whose face is not shown 8212; just the repetitive and ritualistic activity of waxing going on mechanically. And it is a video that men have been watching for hours since the show opened 8212; unable to tear their eyes away. A part of the installation by Shilpa Gupta, the television stands on a circular rug made of wigs. This creates a paradox a situation Shilpa has a fetish for by keeping the viewer away at a distance and yet at the same time making the secretive everyday activity of women an open-for-all public show.
Also, for the viewers, it might just dissolve the great obsession with unblemished skin perhaps the biggest fetish walking the streets right now, as Chaitanya Sambrani, art historian puts it. For Shilpa, who was unable to touch the strips initially, the installation was an immunisation process at the end of which there was an acceptance for human residue. The for sale8217; declaration is a sarcastic jibe at the rabid consumerist culture where she is putting the unsaleable on the market. Imagine hershock when someone actually wanted to buy the waxed hair! You can8217;t take a walk past Shilpa8217;s work you will find yourself standing in front of it making disgusted faces. The wanted reaction, Shilpa says. She also invites you to quot;get physical with the worksquot;, pick them up and touch them. Interactivity is very much a part of the agenda and if you pause to think, the installation will make plenty of sense. But does this qualify as art8217;? quot;I pay as much attention to space, form and time as any other artist, so by that criterion, it is art,quot; she says.
Gaurish Savant8217;s work comprises of three canvases each with 48 A-4 print- outs of computer generated images stuck together to form one big picture. All three contain reproductions of Gaurish himself quot;I love working with my own image,quot; he says. One titled Honey, please don8217;t call me an earthworm8217; has his face morphed to a woman8217;s Pamela Andersen-ish body. quot;The work is about our obsession with sex. We spend so much time on an activity which doesn8217;t take morethan an hour,quot; he says. The title is a humourous reference to the unisexual earthworm. The second work titled Honey, please don8217;t take it seriously,quot; has many Gaurishs snarling out of the canvas. A fun work it comes out of his everyday life quot;Baring teeth is like a habit every morning when I brush my teeth. So here I am just having fun, it is not serious,quot; he says. It is also a tribute to his admiration for Andy Warhole8217;s Marylin Monroe where many, almost identical images of the actress, were put together. Titles of all three works start with Honey8217; something he picked up from the movie Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. quot;The man is actually talking to the audience through the title and not to his wife. I really liked that and I used it to have a dialogue with the viewers,quot; he says. Mayura Subhedar8217;s installations are an elegy to demolished houses in her locality Thane. Walking back everyday, she would see the exposed, mutilated homes. And though the walls had been pulled down, the stain of living was moredifficult to remove quot;a water hose still running, a fan still on the ceiling. Even though they were illegal constructions, you are exposed to somebody8217;s house. And for me there was a need to question what I was seeing everyday.quot; These remains of the living like pieces of concrete, a mosaic tile collected painstakingly from the site, have been placed delicately on blue velvet or exhibited on wooden shelves. For Mayura this is the preserving of the quotidian, quot;Why should only beautiful things be put in museums,quot; she questions. Another part of the exhibit are 16 slabs of concrete picked from different houses and gently put on velvet as if laid in their graves. For Mayura, these houses, once buzzing with activity, seem to be grieving for their lost occupants. Her written statement says, quot;The demolished houses have an air of such fatality8230; and have a natural need which is human to be laid to rest in peace.quot; Description sheets for each slab read like a patient sheets hung on hospital beds. Details such assize, rooms, colour, age, peculiarities, inhabitants; were carefully noted down by Mayura on the site.
Each artists8217; statement is very strongly individual and yet the show as a whole works. A single thread binding them is the determination to speak out their minds whether the point of view sells or not. Besides the new thought, what is also encouraging is that the artists found willing sponsors Mahindra amp; Mahindra and Bank of Baroda. And the anti-commodification stance didn8217;t worry Arshiya Lokhandwala, director, Lakeeren, when she decided to put up the exhibition. quot;We have a show by young artists each year. And if the work is good, it must be go up.quot;
At Lakeeren, Vile Parle W till August 22, 1998. Time: 11.00 am to 7.00 pm.
