Saturday, August 24, 2013

Featuring A film on Jamini Roy, Shutup Internet, and more..

NEWS

Shut Up, Internet!



Shrine Empire Gallery presents a solo show of works by artist Suchitra Gahlot. The show titled, ‘Shutup Internet!’ reflects the artist’s interest in human behaviour and relationships. As an artist, she is interested in exploring all that binds us and yet makes us different people. Her installations often ask the viewer to walk the line between voyeur and participant.
Her current work, ‘Shut Up, Internet!’ is an installation of suspended jars that contain forty thousand emails dating from 1995 that have been torn to pieces. Bits of paper fly to a controlled turbulence within each jar. These self-contained cells of chaos are reflective of artist's own struggles with digital living. 
The installation examines the cacophony of digital living and how we live in a permanent state of responsiveness to every beep or buzz. As we are alerted into submission, we are no different from the devices we own. They own us as much as we own them.
The show is on previews on 30th of August to the 4th of September 2013 at the Galerie Romain Roland, Alliance Francaise de Delhi, New Delhi and laterfrom the 9th September to the 5th October 2013 at the Shrine Empire gallery.
Open Studio Day

Space 118, Mumbai presents an “Open Studio Day’ with the works of a group of upcoming resident artists. The participating artists are Rajvi Dedhia, Juhee Matta, Anindita Chakraborty, Lynn Sivanand, Ranjit Kokate, Srikant Puranik, Shanthi Kasi and Olivier Roura. 

The works on display were made during the residency program offered by the gallery. Along with the works on display there will be a 30minute Performance act of selected excerpts from ‘Untold Stories’ by eminent artist Bharati Kapadia. this performance will be held at 6:00 pm on the 31st August 2013.

The works will be on display for one day on the 31st between 4:00pm to 8:00 pm.

Jangarh Kalam Art
( A work on display)
The Viewing Room, Mumbai presents a show of art works by a group of artists who practice the ethnic art of ‘Jangarh Kalam’( Songs of the forest). The show is co-curated by Padmaja Shrivastava.

The show features the artists Jangarh Singh Shyam, Nakhusia Shyam, Durgabai Vyam, Subhash Vyam, Ram Singh Urveti and Rajendra Shyam. 

The show opens on 30th August 2013 and will be on view till 21st September 2013.

Diver-Cities Show
( A work at the show)
Latitude 28 art gallery, New Delhi presents a group show of art works titled, ‘Diver-Cities’ of artists from different geographical and cultural zones under one roof of the exhibition space making them interact with the urban spaces, on their own terms and understanding of the contemporary world around them. This brings out in their expression their social, cultural economic tempers, and conditionings displaying varied levels of grit and fortitude to adapt to the new.
The participating artists are Arun Kumar HG, Avantika Bawa, Baiju Parthan, Chittrovanu Majumdar, Gigi Scaria, Manjunath Kamath, Roshan Chhabria, Prajakta Palav, Praneet Soi, Sarnath Banerjee and Sudipta Das.
The show previews on the 27th of August 2013 at 7:00 pm and is on view till the 1st of October 2013.
( News reports by Sushma Sabnis)


FEATURE
A life in colours
In Debabrata Roy’s film on Jamini Roy, he lets his paintings do the talking. He also refrains from incorporating anecdotes and personal history of his grandfather, making it a re-evaluation of the modernist’s artistic practice
(Rooted in soil : Works of Jamini Roy)
Artists never become outdated for the subjects they engage with continue to be relevant in different time periods. Jamini Roy’s discourse on rural India created through his powerful rendering of the subject assumes significance in the wake of the flux that surrounds us. Last year was Roy’s 125th birth anniversary, an occasion which went off silently except a few exhibitions in Kolkata. But two months ago, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) celebrated the modernist with a massive exhibition, “Jamini Roy (1887-1972) Journey to the Roots” curated by senior art historian Ella Dutta, who also released a monograph on the modernist.
(Rooted in soil : Works of Jamini Roy)
Now, filmmaker Debabrata Roy is ready with a film on his famed grandfather, which will be screened on August 30 at India International Centre. Called ‘The Art of Jamini Roy’, the 55-minute film, deals with the evolution of his art. “So 80 per cent of the film is his paintings, some of them very rare and unseen like his copies of Van Gogh, Picasso, Tibetan thangkas. Jamini Roy’s way of understanding world art was through these copies,” says Debabrata, who made another film on Jamini Roy years ago, which got damaged. “I have retrieved some rare archival footage of him painting from that film which shows him paint but not speak. I was 29 when he died and I had recorded him painting. He wasn’t a very dramatic personality. He was almost like a sage. From morning till night, he was painting. Painting was his life and that’s how it comes out in the film.”
(Rooted in soil : Works of Jamini Roy)
According to Debabrata, there are hardly any films made on the modernist, who rejected academic realism of the West, the style he excelled in, and went back to the roots. The film shows the process he went through to acquire a folk idiom. “I have shot extensively in Sushnia Hills, in his native place Bankura. He took direct influences from the terracotta temples of Bishnupur so there are lot of shots of these temples in the film.”
As for the absence of any interviews in the film, Debabrata says he feels it would have only hampered the flow, which is why he has done without them. “Why do I need to have interviews when I am showing so many of his paintings? It says it all. I have simply used a voiceover and Santhal music for the background score. ”
A book “Jamini Roy — His Life In Art”, by art historian and critic Sandip Sarkar, has also been written recently.
(The film, “The Art of Jamini Roy” will be screened at India International Centre, Lodi Estate at 6:30 p.m.)
(Report by Shailaja Tripathi for The Hindu)

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