Category: India
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Painters and painters
Painters and painters When leaving TKM Warehouse, the Kochi Biennale venue where I had just seen Prabir Gupta’s installation (see last week’s post), I thought of the roadside painter’s shack in front of the warehouse. Two years ago it was there. Then I had peeped in and taken the photo above. I still remember the…
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Puzzling painting
Puzzling painting Not just a painting, a whole installation! A little paper on the wall is telling us: “Restore Icons: 1799, a Chassis from Paris Iconising Dalits and Blacks.” We know that the artist, Prabir Gupta, was born, lives and works in Kolkatta (Calcutta) and that he is influenced by the political activism in his…
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Anju’s dressing room
Anju’s dressing room Anju Dodiya had a whole series of works at the KMB 2018, that have a little photo of herself at the centre, almost like a selfie. The Biennale guidebook tells us: “In the ambience of an actor’s dressing room, with its row of double lights, the viewer encounters the artist/protagonist as a…
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A reminder
A reminder Name: Aaron Place of Birth: Cochin Age: 18 or 19 Sex: M Seller: Jan Dircx de Beer Buyer: Johannes Muller Price: Rds 55 Sold at: Cape Town 17.6.1687 Me, a Dutchman, looking at old Dutch names written on T-shirts hanging on a clothesline at the waterfront of Fort Cochin. Container ships passing in…
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The Kerala floods
The Kerala floods When it comes to site-specific installations the Bangladeshi artist Marzia Farhana has done a fine job with her work for the KMB 2018. The August 2018 floods in parts of Kerala had caused, apart from loss of lives, a lot of destruction of homes, crops and the natural environment. Farhana has made…
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Tasmania in Kerala
Tasmania in Kerala Among the artists invited to take part in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale there are always some that feel the need to make a site-specific installation. For this year’s Biennale the Aboriginal artist Julie Gough has filled a room with rather loosely connected elements that build on her experience as a visitor to Kochi…
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KMB 2018
KMB 2018 The curator of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 has given the exhibition the motto “Possibilities for a non-alienated life”. I think that many of the selected artists are indeed actively trying through their work to keep, repair or establish meaningful close links between life, art and the world. The artists that figured in my…
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Art in nature
Art in nature Lying down on the ground is what Sonia Khurana does in her performances. Lying down on a busy town square for example. In a video at the KMB2018 one can take note of her on-going lying down project. I was actually more intrigued by another part of her installation: the cut-out shapes…
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Nature in art
Nature in art The art works of Priya Ravish Mehra shown at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018 speak of life. The fibres of paper and cloth, the colours used, they all come from nature. As do the twigs, roots, leaves and other elements that she has integrated in her sheets and hangings. Their collective, overall impression…
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Spare-ribs
Spare-ribs That’s what I thought they were. Relics of the skeleton of a gigantic prehistoric animal. Casually placed against a wall. Or are they remains of the skeletons of palm leaves? Plant and animal world (including us) are of the same nature after all. Photo of the week: Margao, Goa, India 2012
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