{"id":86138,"date":"2013-01-31T13:49:37","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T08:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=86138"},"modified":"2013-01-31T13:49:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T08:19:37","slug":"the-i-of-the-beholder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/the-i-of-the-beholder\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018I\u2019 of the beholder"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nWHY DO<\/strong> we look at art? How do artists satisfy viewers? Do they intuitively know what is beautiful? Peak Shift Effect<\/em>, a show marking 25 years of Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, tries to answer these questions.
\nIn neuroaesthetics, peak shift effect signifies that an artist can magnify visual stimulus to peak a viewer\u2019s response. An artist picks on the \u201cprinciple of beauty\u201d, says curator Gayatri Sinha. \u201cScience is recognising now the artist\u2019s natural talent that practitioners have long known. Why do generations of people visit museums to see art objects? Because beauty has a universal quality.\u201d Sinha has tried to adapt the theme to this group show, the first of the three in the Gallery\u2019s roster this year, that hunts for an aesthetic in all aspects of life \u2014 domestic, public, death and history. The idea is to see the three floors of the Gallery as an evolving space \u2014 the ground floor houses works that play with domesticity, the second floor asks questions of one\u2019s identity in the city, the third has works drawn from history. Yet, what is intriguing in theory fails to transform into practice.
\nOn the ground floor, Hema Upadhyay\u2019s Pedestrian<\/em> continues with her signature theme of placing her body in her art. The figures running across a carpetsize canvas on the ground are of the artist herself. If you remove them from their patterns, the work fades away. \u201cIt questions the elevated status of art. The audience, which at first is a spectator, goes on to become an important part in disintegrating it,\u201d says Upadhyay.
\nOn the walls, there are breathtaking pictures by Sunil Gupta, a photographer known for shooting the LGBT community in the most candid manner. Here, the life of two gay men is documented through hats, formal tuxedoes, close-ups and a classic noir setting. One of the finest shots is Film Noir Angels<\/em>, where halfnaked men look down in a queenly manner from a balcony. Says artist Atul Bhalla, \u201cThe objects in the room are intimate. You have to approach them to interact.\u201d The two frames of his diptych Two Chairs in Johannesburg<\/em> show the same chair with small differences. Bhalla calls this \u201can exaggeration of still life\u201d.
\nExaggeration takes a different form in Shilpa Gupta\u2019s print-on-mirror work I Look At Things With Eyes Different From Yours,<\/em> which is meant to be an anchor for the room. However, it fails to impact. Placing a mirror right at the centre of the room seems too literal an exercise to blur the lines between the viewer and the viewed, and does not raise questions of audience participation in art.
\nThe first floor opens up thematically to city spaces. Praneet Soi\u2019s acrylic on canvas Sliding Ground<\/em> poses questions \u2014 are the displayed bodies male or female? Is the concern gender, sex or violence? \u201cI collect my images from media reports. I talk about how the city stamps out the identity of a fallen body,\u201d says Soi. Abir Karmakar\u2019s Porno Painting<\/em> series looks at a hotel room from different angles. Exquisitely detailed, it is unsettling in its implied voyeurism. Ordinary urban haunts bec ome murky spaces threatening identity and privacy. Karmakar\u2019s skill as a painter is absolute. \u201cIt evokes a mix of vertigo and voyeurism,\u201d says Sinha.
\nThe second floor\u2019s centrepiece is Riyas Komu\u2019s intricately detailed wood sculpture Safe to Light<\/em>. On one end is a handpump and on the other, a world map carving, evoking scientific progress through history. Komu has recreated an ancient Iranian apparatus used to draw oil, while the map gives it a contemporary context of oil wars. Jagannath Panda\u2019s references to Indian history, though, get lost in their minimalism. Why is a Mughal astride a horse kicking a pig? What does a collage of a butterfly, a lamp-post and an Aladdin-esque lamp mean? It is frus tratingly spare, as if the artist forgot to leave in the next clue.
\nThe works range from stunning to baffling, but there is no significant departure from trends in contemporary Indian art. Critic Meera Menezes says that Atul Bhalla\u2019s works are \u201cpoetic\u201d and Mithu Sen\u2019s installation Cannibal Lullaby<\/em> gives \u201cbeauty to macabre\u201d, but \u201cI can\u2019t seem to join the dots of the larger curatorial concept\u201d. As a curator, Sinha asks: \u201cHow do artists respond to our turbulent tim es?\u201d Most contemporary artists already engage with social realities on canvas. This show, though enjoyable and at times challenging, fails to go beyond.
\nOn till 2 March at the Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi<\/em>
\nAradhna Wal is a Sub Editor with Tehelka.<\/em>
\naradhna@tehelka.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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