Mumbai Gallery Weekend
Taj Land's End
31st March - 1st April, 2012
Nine galleries, a few dozen artists and several people one doesn't get to see at the SoBo openings. Some compelling work mixed with art that had a been-there-done-that quality. My favourite works were by the Pakistani artists represented by Lakereen. Imran Quershi's art was compact and delicate - all fine lines, simple colours and forms that were precise but undeniably organic. Atif Khan had created a larger canvas called the 'Flying Carpet' - a beautiful rendering of flowers and ants designed for geometric effect. I also enjoyed Ranbir Kaleka's 'Chimerical Entrapment.' I liked the way he negotiated multiple milieus using a single object, in this case, a vase of flowers. Kaleka will allow the buyer to nominate someone to be incorporated into the mixed-media work - a quaint personal touch from an artist who is otherwise known for operating with decidedly cutting-edge tools.
And then there were: Reena Saini Kallat's large web of identity-endowing stamps; Manjunath Kamath's charming mixed media musings on the little and the commonplace; splashes of red and charcoal; tongue-in-cheek observations on the Krishna Leela; plastic bags and foil spun into sculpture; glass hammers reposing in glass cases; bonsai works by Charwei Tsai; Priyanka Choudhary's visceral mash up of wax and kitchen knives; and a Damien Hirst. What was interesting was the presence of several works that privileged technique and craft, that deliberately set up tensions between material, form and content.
But other themes were repetitive, almost predictable - anxieties about scientific interventions in supposedly 'natural' realms, questions about identity and caustic takes on convention and consumerism. Not surprisingly, the ensuing art seemed to lack depth and investigation - whether it was a 3D representation of genetically engineered fruit, or the tale of the three monkeys related through photos of children. And there was a certain confusion and lack of context that came from having different works by different artists share a fairly small space. There was no breathing room, and no apparent rationale for why thing were grouped and organized the way they were.
More of a collector's event than an exhibition for the general public. Even so, the MGW made for an afternoon well-spent.
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