The Second Innings of In Touch
Coming together to face difficult situations like the COVID 19 Lockdown and the spread of the Pandemic in various parts of India and the world is clearly a successful formula. Given that pooling in resources and presenting an easily navigable platform to beat the socio-economic difficulties brought on board by the virus, the second edition of the online exhibition platform, In Touch, was launched on June 5th and will continue till July 5th, 2020.
For the uninitiated, the In Touch, platform enables the art community to connect with each other through organized and synergistic exhibition-making. It has reinvented itself to challenge traditional formats of engaging with art and brings together a diverse range of online programs and exhibitions.
“Chemould Prescott Road’s collaboration with In Touch part – 2 has been one of learning and understanding the working in group situations. We look forward to the second edition of In Touch, we have curated a group of artists who have worked with photography as a medium of expression,” says Shireen Gandhy, the director of Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai.
The Participating galleries in the second edition are Chemould Prescott Road, Bombay; Experimenter, Kolkata; Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai; Gallery Espace, New Delhi; Green Art Gallery, Dubai; Grey Noise, Dubai; Nature Morte, New Delhi; PHOTO INK, New Delhi; GALLERYSKE, Bangalore/New Delhi; Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; The Third Line, Dubai; and Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. The initiative was conceived as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused an unprecedented physical closure of public spaces and cultural institutions worldwide.
The focus of the second edition brings photography as a medium employed by artists in multiple creative ways, both as a medium and a message. Artists who work with multiple mediums, very often resort to using photography which makes up an integral part of the artist’s repertoire. Importantly, these artists are not photographers, (at most times) but ‘conceptualizing’ the idea is often related through a photograph.
The galleries hence went about to dig into their archives or their stockroom to locate works that gave importance to the photographic image. For Chemould Art Gallery, it was Pushpamala N’s work that they found most striking and it set the tone of the project. This is mostly because the artistic community is at a very particular moment in history.
Much of what they present here – is relevant now as much as it has been relevant in the past, except the work begins to tell the story differently. Art has the power to translate, to be a part of the present, the future, and the past.
For instance, artist Vivan Sundaram’s fascination with urban trash has been ongoing since 2009 and his solo exhibition titled Trash that showed at Chemould and subsequently at the Kiran Nadar Art Museum (KNMA) in Delhi and even at the Walsh Gallery, at Evanston. Sundaram employs large scale photos and videos based on a constructed city of trash that the artist made in 20 x 60 feet of his studio space.
Working with waste-pickers, the trash was literally unloaded by truck-loads into his studio and then he began to construct the ‘sets’ in which to stage this theatre of the absurd. Viewed in a Post COVID scenario, there is something eerie and almost prophetic about the uninhabited landscapes of Metal Box, a site created from urban trash that cannot be recycled and which has led to the deterioration of our planet.
Gigi Scaria’s Dust also presents this idea of desolation and abandoned landscapes, in his digitally recreated photograph of a line of buildings wedged together in a sandstorm as they stand isolated and artificially located in a vast desert.
Gallery Experimenter (Kolkata), presents the sensitive and nuanced works by Adip Dutta titled, Form Anew Evident in the paper cast and bronze sculptures of wrapped goods, is Dutta’s gaze that invites the viewer to renew value, we assign as a society, to objects that are every day and occupy our field of vision,” says Gallery director Prateek Raja. The Embroidery of Chaos, presented by Dutta gives us the overlapping and simultaneous view of the city.
C K Rajan, presented by Mirchandani + Steinruecke, explores with moody, dark humor, states of loneliness and isolation, remoteness, anxiety, and withdrawal. His small-format works (painted between the years 2013-17) express the idea of working with limited resources and within challenging situations. The works are both detailed and sketchy, rough yet painted with care and precision. It presents the duality of diminutive lives that are nonetheless resonant.
Gallery Espace showcases the works of G R Iranna and Tanmoy Samanta, that bring to the fore the mystery at the heart of nature – the assertion of life over death. Vadehra Art Gallery presents a group of artists from Jagannath Panda and contemporary sculptor Sumedh Rajendran. There are also beautiful paintings by Atul Dodiya and Sudhir Patwardhan, a painted mattress by Anju Dodiya, and a light installation by Shilpa Gupta. PHOTO INK presents Machinations, 2009-2014 by Kolkata based artists, Madhuban Mitra & Manas Bhattacharya. Nature Morte’s chosen a group of works that speak to our challenging times, from Vibha Galhotra to Bharat Sikka.
Green Art Gallery, Dubai presents a dialogue between Maryam Hosieni and Hera Büyükstaçiyan. While Hosieni lives in New York, Büyükstaçiyan is based in Istanbul and hence their works reflect their different cultural contexts. Hosieni’s work contemplates the concept of ruins in a politicized social environment through bodies that navigate ruins and architectural spaces. Büyüktasçıyan examines the historical relationship between labor and productivity, labor, and power.
Grey Noise, Dubai looks critically at the Algorithmic exhibition spaces, of online shows and digital white squares, that are invading our screens. To perpetuate the confusion, they shuffle and mix up artist names, titles, years, and prices, asking the question, ‘Is it possible for physical artworks to survive outside any geography?’
The Third Line also in Dubai presents Mindscapes, a solo exhibition of Laleh Khorramian’s works that grants the viewer an audience with alien deities and invites them to briefly experience the extra-terrestrial terrain of her imagination through the works in this selection. She employs mono-prints and creates rich abstractions.
In Touch – Edition 2
From 5 June – 5 July 2020
www.artintouch.in
Text By Georgina Maddox
Images Courtesy: In Touch, group of galleries
Find out more about the Artists and Gallery:
https://www.vadehraart.com/atul-dodiya-exhibitions
https://www.vadehraart.com/jagannath-panda-artworks
http://www.lalehkhorramian.com/
https://www.gallerychemould.com/
https://www.instagram.com/shireengandhy/
https://www.saffronart.com/artists/k-g-subramanyan
https://dagworld.com/artists/k-laxma-goud/
https://www.galleryespace.com/
https://www.instagram.com/naturemorte_delhi/?hl=en
https://naturemorte.com/artists/bharatsikka/
https://naturemorte.com/artists/vibhagalhotra/
https://www.greynoise.org/charbeljoseph-h-boutros-works
https://www.saffronart.com/artists/vivan-sundaram
https://www.gallerychemould.com/artists/54-vivan-sundaram/works/
http://www.sumedhrajendran.com/exhibitions.htm
https://www.saffronart.com/artists/sudhir-patwardhan
