The fact that it was set in a 100-year old building in the dusty alleyway off a seemingly main road in Halsuru is enough to show that the exhibition dealt with spaces. Except that here, the space was explored from a geographic and perhaps, cultural context rather than a historical one.
What the exhibition, a project by the students of the Srishti School of Art and Design, showcased at the Anna Vasanthi Sanga was artworks that record the way of life in the area of Halsuru.
Right here right nowIts title “Igle Ivagle”, meaning “Right here, Right Now” in Kannada, is an indicator that the exhibition is set in the contemporary and not in the past, according to curator, Nihaal Faizal.
Spread over two rooms on the ground floor of the building, the exhibition featured films by students projected in different corners. Each of these films showcased a particular activity in the area, including worship, wood cutting or painting signboards.
“Whether it is painting, or moving wood, these are gestures that become rituals because of repetition. And this is relevant to any action we do on a daily basis and in such a location, there are rituals for everything. There are different people doing different things and bumping into each other, and the exhibition showcases our perception of their lives to the audience,” says Nihaal. There were also films that explored the neighbourhood through a fictional perspective. “What I did was to link the different works together. I categorized them into the works that explore gestures or rituals and works that explore fictional narratives. Since they were all based on the same space, that was my starting point to begin connecting,” he adds.
The painted signboards in one of the films, which are actually titles of the different artworks, were also displayed as artworks, alongside postcards, of the “businesswomen of Shivaji Nagar”. The postcards, by Anwesha Chakraborty, showcased women at work in various entrepreneurial occupations.
“I walked around Shivaji Nagar and I saw that most of the jobs seemed male-dominated and when I explored some more I found some women who seemed independent entrepreneurs and they inspired me. I wanted to give them some importance, ” says Anwesha. “The basic idea of the exhibition is also to showcase the hidden stories of Shivajinagar.”
