Jan 22 – Feb 22, 2020 |Art Centrix Space, Jain Farm, Behind Sector D2, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi
Art Centrix Space presents – ‘The Signature in the Image’, a collateral exhibition to the India Art Fair curated by Pranamita Borgohain and Monica Jain. ‘The Signature in the Image’ explores the impact of a signed artwork by showcasing works of India’s renowned senior and mid career contemporary artists. The show seeks to understand the implications of a signed image. The momentous exhibition will feature works of eight artists including Kolkata-based Avijit Dutta, Kerala-based sculpturist Balagopalan Bethur, Delhi-based visual artist, D Priyanka, Germany-based John Tun Sein, Mumbai-based Sachin Bonde along with Ganesh Gohain, Geroge Martin PJ, and Vijay Kadam. Their works are thoughtfully divided into two categories – one category of works will bear the signature of the artists and the other will be stripped off the signature. The participating artists thus are given a unique opportunity to present their works as a challenge to familiarity.
Avijit Dutta’s work titled ‘The Nested Grid’, mixed media work on canvas. Balagopalan Bethur’s work titled ‘The Omniscient Norm’ on wood. D Priyanka’s works on imagined reality such as flora, fauna, and mythical creatures in water colour on paper. Ganesh Gohain’s works include ‘Map Towards Infinity’, mixed media on canvas and ‘A Tree of Illusion’, eraser and paper on board. Geroge Martin PJ works ‘The Other Stories of Difference’ and ‘When the time is not of the essence’, acrylic on canvas. John Tun Sein’s artworks are acrylic on canvas, as a well known senior artist his style of painting over the years have become a signature in itself .Sachin Bonde’s works titled ‘For War’, Ruler’ and ‘Blinds’, etching on paper and ‘Poking Noses’ using Dental Stone plaster, etched brass and gold leafings. Vijay Kadam works are on teak wood and is titled ‘Organic Field’. The show is curated with a purpose to let the audience to contemplate and ruminate when faced with artworks without a signature. Can a body of work created over a long span of an artist’s career and diverse, as it may be, make a well-attested, authoritative argument for the absolute need or not for an artistic signature required for familiarity? Thus, is the act of signing more about ownership and provenance or is it an influence of western thought considering ancient and medieval India didn’t have such a tradition?
The Signature in the Image show will spark and trigger greater questions around creativity, while seeking to examine if the artist’s signature is a truth intended to detach from or reinforce the idea of subjectivity. Taking this exhibition as a testing ground for critical questions that are so far unanswered in the art world.
