The current exhibition, Live Unbound, at Modern Art Gallery in Delhi showcases the creativity within each participating artist and emits a wholeness that makes these artists who they are. Curated by Sugandha Chagti, the exhibition features contemporary masters across disciplines of art and four absolutely new artists.
Excerpts from an interview:
What was the thought behind this show? How did you weave it all together?
#Liveunbound focusses on freedom of expression; To enter the contemporary space through established contemporary masters and launch four new artists to provide a platform for new talent. Weaving was done through research – by travelling all over India to meet artists — and after continuous conversation over a period of few months, we brought all the artists together; only one work per artist to stay true to the curation.
Who are the participating artists and what have they brought in?
The participating artists include: TV Santosh, Puja Mondal, Sahaya Sharma. Baiju Parthan, Shampa Sircar, Nayanaa Kanodia, Arzan Kambatta, Ravi Mandlik, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Somnath Singh, Sanju Jain and Shoba Jolly. Of these, Puja Mondal, Komal Mistri, Thirumala Tiru and Shailesh Chavda are showing for the very first time.
All our artists come from different cities and have worked on different mediums. Each has brought in their own expression. For instance, Mistri has used cardboard boxes, photographs and found objects around the house to express how women negotiate in everyday life for the freedom to pursue their dreams. Baiju plays with cosmic charts and astrology; Somnath lonely life in a city and Sujith has explored the extraterritorial in his works. TV Santosh and Puja Mondal have brought social and political issues to the fore with their art.
The show is an exploration of mediums, how does the message come through in contemporary art idioms? Your impressions of the works that challenge the new language.
Every work of art occurs in a medium — a physical object or a series of events by which the work is communicated to the recipient. The art presented is a break away from the orthodox mindset and keeps the environment in focus. For instance, scrap is used by an artist to portray beauty even in the waste generated by humans.
The digital prints by Parthan showcase human skulls in an artistic 3D format. We have primarily focussed on monotonic tones of art to represent the blurriness caused by pollution in our environment today.
What are your impressions of the contemporary art scene. Who are the artists to look out for?
The contemporary art scene in India is ‘Work in Progress’. A lot of artists are exploring this space and a lot of new ideas are coming through. They are working with different mediums and the scale of the work is also changing. Likewise, the buyer is also updating his/her tastes as the thought process is also changing. This is a focus on social issues, especially, feminism and climate change. Technology is playing a very important role as conversations around AI art are growing.
The artists to watch out for in this space are: Sanju Jain, Somnath Singh, Sujith SN, Sahaya Sharma and Raj More.
