Like how a grand structure like the V. T. Station that once represented colonial power changed its meaning and became almost like the heart of the city and represented the aspirations of the people.

History Lab

 “It is about a process of understanding the history from the point of view of progress,
 

T.V. Santhosh is an artist based in Mumbai

 defined by industrial and technological advancement, and how these high points of advancement in turn become yardstick of measuring the extent of damage caused by man against its own kind and nature. History of war could be read as a parallel phenomenon, as how the weapons technology developed and how experiments were not just limited to confinement of laboratories alone, but multiple narratives of History selectively reorganised to support some propaganda in the name of truth.  And in that process, the history itself becomes a laboratory of conflict. Imageries emblematic of ideologies, power centres and time change their meaning in the course of changing times. Like how a grand structure like the V. T. Station that once represented colonial power changed its meaning and became almost like the heart of the city and represented the aspirations of the people.

                         

installation view at KMB (detail)          
wood, metal and LED timers
174” x 69” x 27” Image copyright T. V. Santhosh

 Like this how these smoke and fire spitting chimneys that were once the symbol of progress have changed their meaning if seen through new ecological perspective. In a way this work is an attempt of understanding last two centuries, reading through the high points of changes and events that eventually shaped our time.

The Protagonist and Folklores of justice        
installation view at KMB
watercolour on paper

60” x 40” (each)

Image copyright T. V. Santhosh

The Protagonist and Folklores of justice 

These works are part of my new watercolour series, extensions of my ongoing preoccupation with understanding history in relation to a process of enquiry into war and terror that shapes our perceptions of reality and ethics. Also, as a result of rediscovering my old days, when a few decades back  I used to make posters and be actively part of several street theatre productions for an organization involved in activities of political resistance.  It was one of the culturally intense phases in Kerala, in the mid 80's,  I started disbelieving in 'pure aesthetical/creative practices' and tried to meddle with the much discussed idea of art as a possible tool for social reconstructions. Now, I try to revisit those old days in order to understand it from a much larger perspective of endless ideological debate on the conflict between personal, social and political interrelationships. I started this series incorporating linguistic systems of graffiti and political posters addressing a set of questions. I call it 'eternal questions', which one can keep asking at any point of time in  history, yet, it would still be relevant. A question like "who is the real enemy?” is both philosophical and ethical in nature. In the process, works went through drastic change. Many apparent elements became obscure and the obscure became direct. Elements of posters are replaced by the elements of performance and studio photography. And images of herbal garden became the backdrop by problematizing the aspects of political posters. Like in a one-act play, the protagonist interacts with objects that determine the progress of its narrative, I meddle with the images to both subvert and uncover the intent of the questions juxtaposed with. The text that used to be an integral part of the works vanished and is replaced with lucid metaphors that can be understood by men in the street.

*   *   * 

Both the sculpture and the paintings talk about history of war and violence. While the sculpture is more about history, the paintings are more about our present. While the painting incorporate elements of political posters, graffiti and performances, or medicinal plants as backdrop as a reminder of solutions provided by nature to each issues created by man, sculpture has taken elements directly from history in a process to trace the errors committed by men against humanity.” – T. V. Santhosh
 

Born in Kerala, T.V. Santhosh received his Graduate Degree in painting from Santiniketan and Masters  in Sculpture from M. S. University,Baroda. Santhosh’s works have been shown widely in Museums and Biennales. Some of the museum shows include: Kochi-Muziris Biennale, 2016 curated by Sudarshan Shetty; 56^th Venice Biennale 2015  National Pavillion of Iran, The Great Game, Curated by Marco Meneguzzo and Mazdak Faiznia: Making History, Colombo Art Biennale, 2014; Heritage Transport Museum, curated by Priya Pall, New Delhi, 2013; WAR ZONE – Indian Contemporary Art, Artemons Contemporary,  Das Kunstmuseum, Austria, 2012; Critical Mass: Contemporary Art from India, curated by Tami Katz-Freiman and  Rotem Ruff, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, 2012; 11^th Havanna Biennial, 2012;  INDIA- LADO A LADO, curated by Tereza de Arruda, SESC  Belenzinho Sao Paulo, Brazil 2012;  India, curated by Pieter Tjabbes and Tereza de Arruda, Centro Cultural Banco do  Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2011; Rewriting Worlds, 4^th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art,  curated by Peter Weibel, 2011;  In Transition New Art from India, Surrey Museum of Art, Canada, 2011; Collectors Stage: Asian Contemporary Art from Private Collections, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2011;  Crossroads: India Escalate, Prague Biennale 5, 2011;  Empire Strikes Back, The Saatchi Gallery, London, 2010;  The Silk Road, New Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern Art from The Saatchi Gallery at Tri Postal, Lille, France, 2010; Vancouver Biennale curated by Barry Mowatt, 2010;  Dark Materials, curated by David Thorp, G S K Contemporary show, at Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2009; India Xianzai, MOCA, Shanghai, China, 2009;  Passage to India, Part II: New Indian Art from the Frank Cohen Collection, at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, UK, 2009;  Aftershock, Conflict, Violence and Resolution in Contemporary Art,  Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, UEA Norwich, 2007;  Continuity and Transformation, Museum show promoted by Provincia di Milano, Italy, 2007.

                                                               

His select solo shows include Common Wall, Grosvenor Vadehra, London 2014, The Land, Nature Morte, Berlin 2011, Burning Flags, Aicon Gallery, London 2010, Blood and Spit, Jackshainman Gallery 2009, Living with a Wound, Grosvenor Vadehra, London 2009, A Room to Pray at Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich 2008, Countdown, Nature Morte, Delhi 2008 in collaboration with The Guild, Mumbai; Countdown, The Guild, Mumbai 2008.

Copyright © The Guild, 2016
All rights reserved

Things are vanishing before us - Premjish Achari

We live in a time when the digital and the physical are converging together in an unprecedented manner. The proliferation of screens and humanity’s addiction to it has flattened our sense of perception; it has irrevocably altered our visual experience.

( Premjish Achari )

 In our society, screens have become magical tools used by ‘augurers and haruspices’ or those who read omens in the stars, flights of birds and the entrails of animals, uncovering guilt and foreseeing the future. Through screens, we navigate the netherworld of imaginations. They have become our magic mirrors; it appears that we have formed a Faustian pact with the digital world. Software and digitised data are replacing the traditional physical dimensions of objects. We increasingly prefer Bitcoins and digitised banking rather than paper currency, digital images to printed photographs, e-books to paper books; we even seem to spend more money on our online personas. 

( Black Molasses by Aman Khanna)

Digitisation of objects, information, and emotions has irrevocably altered existing ways of knowing, doing and being. Will digital versions of objects such as artworks, photos, clothes, etc., render them obsolete? Will objects eventually shed corporeal form and become flat and virtual in the digital world? Will we define ourselves increasingly through what we consume and create in the digital space? Will our digital avatars overtake our physical selves? 

 The proposed exhibition attempts to analyse and perhaps even salvage the role of objects in our life, by paying particular attention to their ability to evoke the past through nostalgia and memory. Objects remind us of who we are, we often use them to demonstrate our identity. There is little difference between us and what we define as ours. The proliferation of software and digitised data are replacing the traditional physical dimensions of objects. In this passage of rites towards the virtual objects when things are vanishing before us I invite artists to contemplate on the function of objects, do they see this as a revolutionary paradigm shift, or do they prefer the old ways of possessing physical objects and its production more relevant in the preservation of memory and evocation of nostalgia. 

This exhibition is a key to unlock your memories. After entering this labyrinth laden with a series of objects to trigger your memories you will be able to reflect on how people interact with objects, how objects often symbolise something more than their intrinsic nature. 

-  by  Premjish Achari

Featuring:

Aman Khanna | Arti Vijay Kadam | Atul Bhalla | Chandan Gomes | Chinmoyi Patel | Dayanita Singh | Mansoor Ali| Muktinath Mondal| Nikita Maheshwary| Prajeesh A.D.| Riya Chatterjee| Roshan Chhabria| Sharmila Samant| Sumedh Rajendran| Umesh P K| Varunika Saraf| Waswo X Waswo

PIN POSTER:MUMBAI

Mumbai Gallery Weekend (MGW) is a unique initiative that commenced in the year 2012 by leading contemporary art galleries of Mumbai. Its prime objective is to engage not only existing but also potential collectors and supporters of the arts, in order to broaden the reach and relevance of contemporary art. Since its inception, the Weekend has featured an international level of art and conversation set within a diverse set of locations across the city.

Printmaking allowed her to edit and impose through the use of various surfaces and troughs created by deeper etches.

( TS/File photo/facebook/GalleryChemould )

In a society where gender decides on your freedoms a certain inhibition of one’s self manifests in a loss of self ownership. Many woman face such an existence in South Asia, their lives decided by male counterparts, most decisions forced, misogyny manifests mostly in violent forms of suppression.

Tejswini Sonawane born in a family of sisters, often lost the freedoms she enjoyed within her home once she stepped out on to the streets of Sholapur, her hometown. Encouraged by few for her uncles she joined the Sholapur Drawing College to pursue a career in art. She was unsure with her vocation and her practice until she enrolled for a Masters in Printmaking at the Sir JJ School of Art. Initially living in a hostel for girls she began to evaluate her life and the role of her father in her decisions. 

Then she began morphing self portraits by super-imposing images of animals. Printmaking allowed her to edit and impose through the use of various surfaces and troughs created by deeper etches. Sonawane dislikes animals but she uses their forms to distort human faces, she believes misogyny expresses and inhabits in our expressions through animal metaphors. Screeches of a cat became her expression of revolt against a patriarchal wish that disregarded her as an artist but rather wished she were married to man she did not know.

Graduating from the JJ School of Art she lost her place at the hostel and relocated to Dharavi to live among her relatives. Here she lived within the stink of putrid drying animal skin reminding her of Sholapur. Her community the Dhor, traditionally animal skin tanners who purchase skin from butchers, tanning them for cobblers. Within a small tenement living with her uncle’s family people were up-close throughout the day. Thats when she began working on her solo, sometimes etching scenes from her days babysitting her sister’s daughter entertaining her with conversations she strung up with a feral cat, or making portraits of a weeping younger sister - who was often ridiculed by others for her weight.

82 gum-bites, deep etches and dry points form the body of a solo debut using morphed animals that are surreally stretched. Portraits of cats, cows and dogs take on human anatomies while their expressions inhabit ours. Grisaille and rust renderings of colour remind us of the zinc and copper plates used to register these images, giving them a tonal quality that softens their dramatic content. The ‘Jatakas’ became popular in Maharashtra as tales that followed a courageous socio-political movement against caste exploitation. These Buddhist tales through animals reminded humans of their virtues and failings, Sonawane somewhere revisits these traditions to narrate stories of comic ignorance.

Sumeshwar Sharma

Clark House Initiative