Tayeba Begum Lipi’s recent body of work that is part of ‘Vanity Fair’ addresses the irony embedded in the commodification of art, especially, art that represents movements that are staunchly critical of the economic circuits that they are likely to traverse. Known for her feminist art practice that has over the years called into question the brutal ways by which overarching patriarchal structures have confined women, and subjected them to physical as well as psychological violence, the artist is also self-conscious of the way her own work, as well as the work of other explicitly political artists are being subsumed and appropriated by the logic of the capital in an art context that is undeniably yet to shake off deeply rooted sexism. While the presence of such work is subversive in itself — to be seen, recognized and heard — making emancipatory dents in the system, this exhibition goes a step forward in acknowledging the toxic masculinity that is easily able to appropriate and divert resistance movements to its own benefit. And art is not alone. This logic of technocratic late capitalism seeps into civilian movements as well. In the current context that we occupy, who is able to completely ameliorate cultural production to a position where it is completely untouched by the neo-liberal patterns of production and consumption that unconsciously inform our thoughts, behavior and aspirations? The exhibition is an introspection of this conundrum. During ‘Vanity Fair’ the gallery becomes a shop, in the most literal sense of the word. Come, browse for your brand of resistance.
IAF parallel programme
29th Jan – 2nd March | Shrine Empire, D 395, Defence Colony, New Delhi
