Critic's Essay

The recent decent into intellectual and political chaos of several leading art institutions of the country has opened up a debate regarding the relevance of institutionalized forms of Art Education today. Ironically while institutions may be in a state of turmoil, the young artists emerging from them have shown a rare degree of intellectual maturity and creative insight indicating that in the margins of the institutional space a bonding of peers has led to a ferment of ideas. These have become increasingly visible in recent years with institutions like J.J School of Art Mumbai, M.S University Baroda, Santiniketan, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi and Central University, Hyderabad among others throwing up some of the finest young talent of our times.

Peers 2003 organized by Khoj at their Khirkee studio complex this monsoon, was a workshop for recent graduates of Art Colleges, aimed at providing a discursive space for emerging voices. Battling chaos of a different kind created by relentless rain, the five artists lived and worked together for six weeks, interacting and exchanging ideas to come up with some truly innovative work for the open studio day.

Particularly intriguing was M.Bidyut Singha's work. By planting a bed of seedlings on the studio floor surrounded by cow dung bricks and nurtured by an ingenious arrangement of mirrors to bring in the sun, his installation commented on the fragility of the environment and obliquely on human relations. A.P Bhuvanesh's roomful of red clay figurines marching in tandem to an inaudible beat took a wicked swipe at the jingoism that accompanies our ritualistic celebration of freedom, while Om Sooryaa's painting in a grid pattern captured the play of sunlight through the leaves of the tree in the court yard, reminiscent of the work done by Simon Callery at the first Khoj workshop.

The technique of hand built terracotta in the hollow process, with the impression of fingers on the clay imparts a very different surface value to a sculptural object. Rakhi Peswani's sculpture a labour of love unfortunately failed to dry in the rain making her turn to substitute materials. Two legs shaped out of cloth wrapped over an armature protruding from the wall and painted with iron oxide, created the illusion of a figure plunging through artificially divided spaces leaving behind a remnant of a half vanished presence. Sheeba Sharma by creating a womb like dark enclosed space covered with carbon black, set up a site for the solemn enactment of the enigma of life, a vertiginous journey through a dark passage towards a new beginning.

Traversing a wide range of creative forms, the works made during the workshop resonated with a sense of responsibility of representation. Devoid of conservative and nostalgic attitudes promoted by Art Institutions, the conceptual procedures and ideological schemata used by the artists in residence to probe psychological depths had enormous wit and intelligence.

Shukla Sawant