Who has seen Gandhi? Not most of those who turned up for the exhibition on this great man that opened on Gandhi Jayanti. For all of us then, our knowledge of the Mahatma has been formed by books, films of different genres, news reports, photographs and biographies. Everything said, written or visualised about him has been done by admirers, detractors and a few neutral minds.
Last week another attempt was made to interpret Gandhi for the current generation at Raj Bhavan. Inaugurated by Karnataka Governor H.R. Bharadwaj, this exhibition of contemporary Indian art titled ‘Who Has Seen Gandhi' had a variety of objects on display.
The father of our nation was interpreted through paintings, photographs, sculptures and video installations, in this show curated by Rahul Bhattacharya and presented by Tangerine Art Space and its Director Leena Chethan.
Deepak Tandon's photograph, M.F. Husain's small, simple and arresting line-drawing, and Phanindra Nath Chaturvedi's large watercolour were among the most striking of the displays.
An interesting contribution was photographer G.V. Gireesh's image of a beggar whose shadow bears an amazing resemblance to Gandhi's silhouette. Gireesh said: “I was just hanging around the Yadagirigutta temple in Andhra Pradesh when I saw this beggar ascending the steps. It was a single shot and the resemblance surprised me when I processed it.”
Josh P.S. watercolour on paper with vignettes of Gandhi's life was finely detailed and Sudhanshu Sutar's three watercolours of Bapu in various moods were impressive. Taking centre-stage were two bright-red (acrylic paint), fibreglass sculptures by Debanjan Roy –– the first had Gandhi in cargoes talking on a mobile and with a bulldog on a leash, while the other showed him with a crow perched on his head. To some viewers it was an amusing and novel depiction but it didn't go down well with others who found it undignified and irreverent.
The famous monkey trio which hears no evil, sees no evil and speaks no evil was there.
Designed by Arun Kumar HG, they formed an eye-catching display at the entrance. Other artists whose interpretations of Gandhi formed part of this show included K.M. Adimoolam, Ashish Kumar Das, Bibhu Pattnaik, Debraj Goswami, Deepak Tandon, Gigi Scaria, Gururaj Hadadi, Murali Cheeroth, Navjot Altaf, Prasad Raghavan, Rajan Krishnan, Riaz Samadhan, Sachin Karne, Tushar Waghela, Vibha Gahlotra and Viveek Sharma.
Who Has Seen Gandhi is on till October 15 (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) at Gallery Kynkyny Art, Infantry Road, Bangalore.
