The walls of Hill Fort Palace are rugged, with the peeling paint making an unintended mosaic of patterns. Long after it ceased to be a luxury palace hotel, the place is now open, hosting a one-of-its-kind art event — Inbox — as part of Ramaniyam 2015.
Ramaniyam is a tribute to late art patron and founder of Shrishti Art Gallery, Remani Nambiar, and has 81 artists, both established and new, coming together to focus on ‘disposable culture’ by drawing attention to the dimensions of consumerism.
Through an assortment of three-dimensional sculptures and installations by artists, curator George Martin makes us ponder over the short life span of things we consume — products used and discarded in daily lives — and establishes the connect between consumerism and self-worth that emerges from materialistic pursuits.
The market place is a doubled-edged sword from which there seems to be no escape, as consumer durables are designed to become obsolete and replaced, contributing to e-waste.
In fact, some of the sculptures use discarded pieces of letters of a keyboard and USB drives to highlight the state of things.
One of Valay Shende’s metal sculptures, reminiscent of what he exhibited earlier at India Art Fair, has hundreds of coin-sized metal pieces bearing faces of people lost in the sea of consumerism.
Bose Krishnamachari presents his own interpretation of the ‘found object’ technique made popular by Marcel Duchamp in an installation that showcases 108 stoles bearing proverbs written in both English and Malayalam.
Eager to see the reception of this new installation, which marks his return to installation art five years after he got busy with the Kochi Biennale, Krishnamachari points at the contradictions at play: “Each of these stoles is wearable, carrying the proverb with it. But the installation as a whole only has to be observed. It ceases to be wearable art when you look at 108 stoles as a whole. And I chose the number 108 for its spiritual significance,” he says.
Ramaniyam displays works by the country’s well known contemporary artists including Laxma Goud, Debanjan Roy, Riyas Komu, T.V. Santosh and Manohar Chiluveru among others. Inbox spreads across the corridors and spacious interiors of the Hill Fort Palace, which itself narrates a story of consumerism.
The exhibits are open to public viewing till November 21; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Hill Fort Palace (erstwhile Ritz), Adarsh Nagar.
Convergence: Our Sacred Space
Our Sacred Space, Secunderabad, is celebrating its third anniversary with Convergence, which brings together art works from Odisha Modern Art Gallery and a photography exhibition. The exhibition featured works of Tarakant Parida, R.N. Sahoo, Manas Das, Preeti Dhanuka, Lipishree Nayak, along with that of city-based artists Pavan Kumar, Sweta Chandra, Yusus Aidroos, Karthik, Saakshi and Sade Adiseshaiah.
On view till November 8 at the same venue is a collection of prints of photographs by
Saurabh Chatterjee. The exhibition features photographs shot by Saurabh in the last decade, particularly from his travels across the country. Saurabh’s lenses capture a farmer taking a break in Araku Valley to the misty terrain of Ladakh to the landscape dotted with blue homes in Jodhpur.
New utterances: Daira
‘New Utterances: Art of a Dynamic Generation’ juxtaposes paintings by established and new artists who seek to push the realms of art. The exhibition at Daira Centre for Arts and Cultures primarily focuses on works of artists from Hyderabad who have tried to break free of set norms in the art fraternity. Pavan Kumar. D, for instance, depicts everyday objects from the kitchen in a hyper-realistic manner; Bolgum Nagesh Goud reinterprets faces from mythology with a contemporary edge; Jaya Baheti borrows cultural symbols from the rural life; Tailor Srinivas presents snapshots of rural life with deep, vibrant-hued canvases and G. Ramakrishna’s set of small, abstract paintings reflect life in an urban space.
New Utterances is on view till November 15.
Floral feast: Aalankritha
The gallery has on display floral arrangements by members of Ikebana International Hyderabad Chapter, complementing the paintings of Udaya Chiluveru. Udaya borrows the ornate method of highlighting a on a canvas, a technique used by artists in Tanjore, and superimposes images of Ganesha, Krishna and goddesses with floral motifs.
Despite the ornate gold highlights on mythological figures, she subdues them and lets the flowers override the images.
