Like all things, art too, is constantly changing to keep up with the times. As ideas are redefined, the same finds reflection in art. Yet, ideas are never isolated and are oft influenced by already existing factors or elements.
Seeking to find these common threads that bind them together, Mumbai-based Project 88 which is run by Sree Goswami and Kolkata-based Gallery 88 have come together in a unique collaboration for an art show titled Deliberated Time which opens at Sunaparanta “ Goa Centre for the Arts, Altinho on January 31.
Gallery 88 was pioneered by Supriya Banerjee back in 1988 and has over the years represented some of India's biggest artists of the mid to late 20th century. Through its exhibitions in India and abroad, production of researched catalogs, and important publications, it has endeavoured to be a pioneer in the cultivation of a flourishing Indian art scene.Project 88 on the other hand began as an experimental space for Galerie 88 in South Mumbai in 2006. Over time, it has grown into an independent gallery with a programme consisting of Indian, South Asian, and international artists who conceptualize and experiment with various media to radically define the future terrain of the art world. The upcoming show will see the two spaces unite to present some of their finest artists together in Goa and endevours to open doors to a conversation between the past and the future, mediated by the present.
Galerie 88's works include Goan artist and co-founder of the Progressive Artists Group in Bombay, F.N. Souza’s still life depicting a vase of flowers and Debabrata Chakraborty and Meera Mukherjee’s bronze sculptures which depict astrological, or celestial milestones. Chakraborty’s ‘Man on the Moon’ glorifies spatial explorations, Mukherjee’s ‘Ganga’ combines tribal Dhokra and Bastar techniques to celebrate the mythological birth of the river and Somnath Hore’s iconic woodcuts and paper-pulp prints reveal his engagement with the materiality of his work to powerfully represent feelings of physical pain and suffering. Distinguished artist and professor, K.G. Subramanyan’s work references diverse Indian folklores.
In contrast, Project 88 represents contemporary, Indian and international artists who use experimental media to explore and challenge existing notions of time, space, and the environment. Raqs Media Collective’s ‘Lost in Search of Time’ references Proust’s novel, to depict slippages in time in dreams and memories. Rohini Devasher’s works employ technology to represent nature biologically, and politically. Los Angeles based Neha Choksi invents her own take on traditional woodcut techniques to explore dialectics concerning presence and absence, the past and future. Hemali Bhuta’s ‘Inlaid Out’ uses building materials to investigate spaces between dimensionality and transcendence, referencing architectural and ritualistic practices.Graphic artist Sarnath Banerjee’s works employa playful spot-the-difference format to depict an eerie stillness, reflecting upon our hyper-kinetic world.
Through discussions about the diversity of styles, traditions, and ideas shown in this exhibition, viewers are called to reflect upon the expansive landscape of Indian modern and contemporary art and the way it engages with the world “ from socio-cultural themes to technological and philosophical shift in ideas.
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From old world Calcutta, when artists lived and died for their politics to Bombay and beyond, where artists muse over abstracted gender or displaced lives; the concerns of artists from both spaces are different, their responses to time “ and to the times they inhabited “ are unique and complicated, breathing with questions. What seemed vital, crucial, even exciting, was to see how forty years of gallery time might be contracted to one space to look at how time had changed, what had been lost in the sieve of the hours, what had been nurtured - Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi, Honorary Director and Curator
