In the Wake of Tagore
Four exhibits explore the changing character of contemporary Indian art. The Phyllis Weston-Annie Bolling and PAC galleries partnered with ArtWorks Gallery and the Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show to bring together the works of 14 contemporary Indian artists. Radha Chandrashekaran and Meena Vari are guest curators of 'Metamorphosis: Change and Continuity in Indian Contemporary Art'. The works examine globalization and its effects on people and the environment, the merging of the East and West and the blending of traditional Indian art with modernism.
Abanindranath Tagore (1871-1951) is credited as the first modern Indian painter and founder of the Bengal School (La Plante). His followers broke from the aesthetics imposed on their culture by the British Raj. Their works are a revival of traditional Indian art but also the beginnings of modernism. Tagore's influence is unmistakable in the works of some of the artists featured in 'Metamorphosis'. Amitesh Shrivastava's acrylic paintings share a similar color palette with Tagore; the brushwork is soft and the colors are muted. Tagore drew from a number of influences including Japanese watercolors, ancient Greek frescoes and the Ajanta Cave paintings of India's second century BCE. During his lifetime, Tagore fought to preserve Indian culture in the face of the British Empire. It is interesting, then, to consider that much of contemporary Indian art is a battle to preserve this same heritage in the face of globalization.
Shrivastava renews this struggle in Evaporator (2009) and Manufacturers (2009), paintings which grapple with the onslaught of industrialism. The artist portrays his 'manufacturers' almost as if they are Greek Gods. One figure has a wing sprouting from his eyelid, which could be a reference to Hermes the messenger god of Greek mythology or Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace c. 200-190 B.C.) bursting forth from her pedestal. The manufacturers are holding up what could be inventions or tools of their trade, but Shrivastava obscures these objects by painting them in a Cubist manner. In addition to Cubism, the artist may also be influence by Futurism, but the paintings lack some of the dynamism and forward thrust of Umberto Boccioni's Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (c.1913). As with Winged Victory, Boccioni's statue is the pure embodiment of energy. The lack of this kind of energy in Shrivastava's paintings may be intentional. Futurism celebrates the triumph of technology over nature. Shrivastava's paintings melancholic. They reflect what is lost when industrialism beats out the natural world.
Gigi Scaria depicts the changing face of rural life in India where the industrial world is entering and altering the landscape. As Keith Bradsher explains, outsourcing to India turns these small villages into factory towns.
"Among villages with thatch-roofed huts and dirt roads on the outskirts of this city in west-central India, John Deere and LG have recently built factories turning out tractors and color television sets for sale in India and for export to the United States. " (Bradsher)
Scaria's digital print Post Land (2009) shows one of these villages on the outskirts of the city. It is a stark, black and white landscape, with weeds growing over the road, a few people off in the distance, and in the center, a telephone pole, erected like a huge cross in the ground. Scaria's work is conceptual and deals with the displacement of people as industrialism takes over. Scaria often takes a three step approach to his work, first constructing a sculpture, like this telephone pole, then using it as a model for a painting and also photographing the sculpture, as with Post Land. The Krohn has a series of Rangoli sand paintings on display, but no sculptures or installations in 'Metamorphosis'; I think one of Scaria's 3-dimensional works would have been an impressive addition to the show.
A curious work of art is Biju Joze's illustration Black Tissue Paper Roll inside a Red Commode. Joze is a very tactile artist who dabs the paper with red ink thumb prints to create a blotchy, dotted red commode. He creates shading by varying the pressure of his thumb prints. Joze uses this technique in many of his works, often depicting household items such as a light bulb with red or blue thumbprints. He even uses his heel in some of the works. Joze seems to be concerned with the corporal, whether he is working with illustration or sculpture. In one example, he strung together a tribal necklace from Viagra pills. I would venture to say this could be worn by a tribal leader or a Shaman as a display of virility.
Joze considers himself as an activist and addresses environmental issues in much of his work. The toilet paper is unraveled and draped over the toilet seat possibly to show that it is being wasted. The black and blood-red colors suggest that this waste is polluting our waterways. Curiously the red fingerprints also suggest the Indian bindi or KumKum This is a powder that girls and women (and even men) dab on their foreheads during worship, or sometimes wear as a beauty mark (Ramusack). This bindi is said to be placed on the sixth chakra, the 'seat of concealed wisdom.' It is the exit point for kundalini energy, and the bindi is said to retain that energy. This connection makes the subject of a toilet even more bizarre; the idea of flushing something away, the water that we use and have to waste, on a daily basis, just to allow us the convenience of indoor plumbing. The luxury of clean drinking water is often overlooked in the U.S. but Joze seems to make a point that in India, water supplies are running low and cannot afford to be wasted.
Several prints by Vivek Vilasini merge together eastern and western iconography. The crowning example is Last Supper in Gaza (2008) a variation on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper (1495-1498). Here instead we find 13 women, cloaked in all-black chadors or burqas. The central figure is Jesus, with open arms and downcast gaze. Judas is fourth from the left, as in da Vinci's painting, with her elbow on the table. Three pomegranates lie before her on the table. The pomegranates are an interesting choice by the artist, scattered symbolically on the table along with loaves of bread. In Christianity the loaves symbolize the body of Christ.
Vasilini chose the pomegranate as a sign of fertility. In Greek mythology it is the fruit which Persephone eats, making her the goddess of the underworld. Some religious scholars believe the pomegranate is actually the forbidden fruit that led to Adam and Eve's exile from Eden. The Quran also mentions the pomegranate as one of the fruits of the gardens of paradise. Renaissance painters including Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli (Madonna of the Pomegranate, ca. 1487) place the pomegranate in the hands of Mary or the infant Jesus, possibly to symbolize his suffering and resurrection.
Vilasini's depiction of the Last Supper may also be in reverence to K.S. Kulkarni, who founded the Delhi Silpi Chakra artistic movement in the 1940's. Kulkarni departed from traditional Indian art by painting a Cubist style Last Supper. Now, Vilasini challenges tradition by reversing the gender roles in Islamic culture. The apostles of Christianity become the prophets of Islam, Jesus becomes the prophet Mohammed, and these powerful religious figures are women. Their faces are veiled but their eyes reveal the tension among this harim of women. Here the betrayal of Christ comes from much more than just the kiss of Judas. Political and social unrest, war, occupation, violence against women, and religious conflict can all be read in their expressive eyes.
Radha Chandrashekaran and other purveyors of contemporary Indian art are touring this work in the international market where it has been well received. Some of the vast array of Indian cultures and religions are reflected in 'Metamorphosis' but it is just the tip of the iceberg. For better or for worse, art may become another export of India as the country propels further into globalization.
