Graduates from some of India’s leading art schools often find it tough to carve a niche for themselves and have to undergo a struggle before being promoted by galleries and being able to establish themselves. To offer a platform to students who have just stepped out of college, Khoj International Artists’ Association provides a mentor programme through its annual Peers residency that gives recent graduates and masters students a chance for exchange and dialogue and a platform to showcase their work.
In its 12{+t}{+h}edition, the residency programme selected five artists. They include Digbijayee Khatua (College of Art, New Delhi), Faiza Hasan (Sarojini Naidu School of Arts & Communication, Hyderabad), Mithun Das (Kala Bhavan, Shantiniketan), Shailesh BR (Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda) and Utsa Hazarika (University of Cambridge, UK) who were guided by critic-in residence Mario D’ Souza.
The artists use matchsticks, earthen pots, disco balls and medical illustrations to showcase their creativity.
Digbijayee Khatua says he has used burnt matchsticks and paper as his main medium, besides incorporating photographs and objects from Khiriki village into his art. Burnt matchsticks, he says, serve as a metaphor for the combustible city. “My work depicts the contrast between rural and urban existences in close proximity,” says Khatua.
Faiza Hasan, meanwhile, uses medical illustrations from the 18th Century, which come together in an atlas composed of numerous pages, pockets and sections. She says the ideas explored in the atlas are those of scrutiny and censorship, which arise from her own discomfort, with the possible unauthorised and unlimited access, the prying into personal data and its possible misuse.
Utsa Hazarika plays with reflective surfaces to tell her video stories and create video installations with architectural references. Her works use earthen matkas, disco balls and sound to come up with unique installation pieces.
Mithun Das’s works celebrate the uncanny. The motifs in his work speak of desires and unknown fears. His figures, he says, are neither dead nor alive and constantly evolve much like an unidentified metamorphosing creature. The earthquakes in Delhi find reference in Shailesh B.R.’s works and find a correlation between Khirkee and the myth of Vishnu’s Varaha avatar.
Programme manager at Khoj, Promona Sengupta, says the aim is to provide inspiration to emerging artists. The show will open at Khoj Studios, S-17, Khirkee Extension on June 25 and continue till June 28.
