Touchy, Feely, Crazy8230; Art?

For artists like Avadesh Yadav, Vishal, Madan Malvi 8212; all products of the Government Institute of Fine Arts in Indore 8212; it was essential to break out of the canvas. Yadav who is responsible for the polybags installation says, 8216;8216;A canvas is two-dimensional. I wanted to work with space and volume. You can interpret it the way you want.8221; The idea struck when Yadav saw small pouches of oil being sold like this in a tribal area for Rs 5 each.

It8217;s not just about shock value. Many use this genre to discuss relevant issues. Like Mumbai-based Shilpa Gupta. This product of the JJ School of Art plans to hit the city8217;s local trains carrying a boxful of plain bottles titled Ilzaam or Blame and filled with red liquid representing blood. On the box, Gupta has scribbled 8216;Blaming you makes me feel good. So, I blame you for your religion and nationality8217;. She will also carry a prescription which reads: 8216;Take a piece of cloth. Divide it into four parts. Pour this liquid on the four pieces and try to make out the difference in the colour of blood belonging to a Hindu, Muslim, Christian8217;.

8216;8216;I will talk to people I encounter. If they wish they can buy these bottles priced at Rs 10. It8217;s my take on terrorism and riots,8217;8217; says Gupta. Of course, there8217;s no market for these works yet, so artists like Gupta are forced to have 8220;proper8221; jobs she8217;s a web designer. Most often, they shell out their own cash. Artist Nitasha Jainee is still paying the installments on her exhibition Nayansukh, held last August at the Lalit Kala Akademi. She placed 18 male mannequins in a room. Seventeen of them were dressed in expensive suits to represent the materialistic men of the 21st century. A lone one stood naked, garlanded andilluminated from the inside. On the wall, Jainee projected legs of people walking. 8216;8216;There was an urgency to express inner turmoil. The medium lent itself well to the idea I wanted to convey. I wanted to show materialism versus realism.8217;8217;

Over the past few months, Delhi has seen a spurt in video art as well, courtesy the high-tech Apeejay media gallery in Badarpur. Pooja Sood, consultant curator, says, 8216;8216;Art is about looking at things differently. You can8217;t buy this. You can just be its patron,8217;8217; she says.

Chennai-based Natesh is another artist who inspires incredulity and sometimes serious dialogue. The 43-year-old began by designing sets and lights before moving on to installation in 8217;98. At his most recent installation in Chennai last January, he welded PVC and nailed it to a bamboo structure to create a 8216;pond8217;. In it he placed a picture of a commode, before filling the basin with 20 litres of water. He then floated a 8216;boat8217;, a photograph of a mobile statue whose rotating head was designed with four photographs of him as a child. Natesh says this work was meant to counter 20th century consumerism. 8220;The politics of the powermongers is endless. It8217;s a form of self-criticism too. As if to say: Who the f is Natesh!8217;8217;

For the changing art scene, credit must go to Sharan Apparao of Chennai-based Apparao Galleries too. Her first such show in Delhi, an art and design crossover called In Bad Taste?, saw a coming together of artists and designers. Artist Bharti Kher worked with hotelier Priti Paul to make steel lipsticks, sandals and a saree. 8216;8216;It was questioning who decides good taste and aesthetics?8217;8217; says Sharan.

Then she organised another show based entirely on the vamps and villians of Bollywood. 8216;8216;I think all these shows are happening because an entire generation of youngsters is bored and wants to see something new,8217;8217; says Sharan.

Alka Pandey, curator of Visual Arts gallery, says the trendy shows are popular. 8216;8216;The visibility of such works are higher than the ones which are put up in galleries.8217;8217; These shows may grab eyeballs, but artists like Paramjit Singh says they8217;re nothing beyond fun. 8216;8216;A lot of trash is being produced in the name of installation and different art. A lot of incompetent artists who aren8217;t well-versed in drawing and painting are taking to this genre.8217;8217;

By the way, Singh attended the opening of The Bachelor Apartments and when we asked him what he thought of the bus, he replied: 8216;8216;Which bus? I thought that it is part of some audio-visual project being run by the government.8217;8217;

With inputs from Rosella Stephen in Chennai