A fresh wave of new art, culture and design spaces has washed over the city, helping to blow away the cultural cobwebs of ennui. For many of the spaces, it isn't just the exhibits that tell a story, their geographical location, the buildings they are situated within, is equally significant. All of which is to say that they are, in their own way, rewriting the narrative of this city.
The Taj Hotels Collection
This January, the Taj Mahal Palace hotel shunted out its administrative offices and opened an art gallery in the salubrious environs of its heritage wing. In fact, this was a re-opening: the hotel had an art space from the 1960s to the 1990s which hosted work by Raza, Husain and other luminaries. What is noteworthy, is its display of a small but enviable collection of art— a sprightly Jehangir Sabavala (Esprit de Paris, Circa 1950s) knocking shoulders with Laxman Shreshtha and V S Gaitonde. Sabavala's and Shreshtha's history is twined with the hotel; for instance, their first showings were at the Taj and so it feels quite proper to find their work here. The bone-white walls of the gallery, its white marbled floors and white window shades all contribute to a delicious feeling of cool and freshness.
Taj Mahal Palace, Apollo Bunder
Akara Art Gallery
Two things are striking about Akara Art Gallery, a brand new addition to Colaba's already impressive roster of art galleries; its inaugural show opened on February 25 (although the gallery opened in November last year). The first are the big windows that give a literal and metaphorical sense of openness. Puneet Shah, founder of the Akara Art Consultancy, says that "being a heritage building, the space had its own charm so we retained the structure of the space with minor changes... we wanted to keep the windows and allow natural light to flow in."
Akara aims to show Indian art as well as international contemporary art with an Asian connection. The show on currently, “Mysteries of the organism” curated by Girish Shahane, explores questions of identity. And that brings us to the second striking thing: the piece that unsettled us was Justin Ponmanny's Room No. 12, Zehra Chawl, Achanak Nagar, near Shankar Mandir, 2007. Perhaps it was the size - it is a large print (53.75" x 116.5") of a man whose eyes have been singed by blindness but still appeared to see right through me (a blind seer?). Beautiful.
First floor, Churchill Chambers, 32 Mereweather Road, Colaba.
G5A
Conceptualised by Anuradha Parikh, G5A is "a multi-functional community space and cultural centre". Its CityLab initiative hopes to deepen engagement between the communities of the G (South) ward, within which it falls — their first initiative being waste management. G5A is also a platform for exchange, dialogue and experimentation of contemporary culture for which it offers plenty of spaces - a black-box style performance hall, a study for quiet deliberation, a rooftop terrace and a cafe.
Laxmi Mills Estate, Shakti Mills Lane, Off Dr E Moses Road, Mahalaxmi (W)
Nine Fish Art Gallery
This one is located deep within the belly of The New Great Eastern Mills; an obliging security guard waved us into the gate with "han han, fish wala gallery, fish wala." The gallery’s heart is young and fresh but its husk has been formed from a building that has been standing from 1839. "The space was designed by Lajja Shah, Hemant Basankar and I. We were very keen to keep the old tresses, and as much as we could of the walls intact, as it is all part of the history of Mumbai's textile mills," says Anurag Kanoria, Managing Director of Nine Fish. Kanoria is anxious not to walk down the well-trodden art path, "not just another box-like urban gallery, purely driven by commercial aims," he promises. The winning points are the ambience, and the art currently on show. All from a brief residency that Nine Fish hosted in Bhutan. Noteworthy: Amit Lodh's wispy papercuts and Anamika Shah's light-hearted, childlike paintings.
The New Great Eastern Mills, 25-29 DR, Ambedkar Road, Near Rani Baug, Byculla
Piramal Museum of Art
Raja Ravi Verma's coquettish, curvaceous women have long fascinated Indian art aficionados and the Piramal Museum of Art’s most recent showing further fuels the adulation. The show has been curated by Farah Siddique and Vaishnavi Ramanathan and showcases not just his paintings, but also objects like postcards and delicate pieces of porcelain that have been inspired by his art. The museum itself is not very large, but it has been expertly designed by Singapore's Gallagher Associates and makes for a pleasant pocket of art in a district thick with corporate offices.
Note: On a weekday, it is open only from 3pm onwards, something we discovered after a sweaty trek into Parel on a sizzling morning. Ashvin Rajagopalan, Director Piramal Foundation of Art explained, "since we are in a corporate park and a busy part of the city, we feel more people will be able to access the museum in the evenings after their 9 to 5 jobs."
Piramal Tower, B-Wing, Peninsula Corporate Park, GK Marg, Lower Parel
Bombay Art Society
There is nothing subtle about the curiously-fashioned Bombay Art Society building in Bandra Reclamation. It sits sturdily amidst a clutch of nondescript residential buildings, an undulating Cubist structure made of concrete, glass and wire. The art within is more well-behaved; we caught the tail end of a show (Masters of Indian Art) displaying works by F N Souza, Manjit Bawa and Akbar Padamsee.
Fashioning the Bombay Art Society space was a labour of love. Shraddha Purnaye, the Administrative Officer told The Hindu that, “setting up the space from scratch was a long process, stretching over 17 years.”
The space right now is rather nascent, but there is plenty to look forward to. There are plans for a café and shop, while an auditorium and an office / conference room sit on an upper floor. This will be especially useful for out-of-town artists, who "may need to print things, e-mail people etc," said Purnaye. The Society even has a wee library that is open to all. It’s home to old journals and catalogues of the Bombay Art Society, many of which are surprisingly engagingly–written for anyone with even a smidgen of interest in art. Unfortunately, the collection is not complete, and Purnaye says that they will be soon putting out advertisements asking for old catalogues and journals. Look out for: its 124th Annual Art Exhibition featuring young and upcoming artists.
Opposite Rangsharda Auditorium, KC Marg, Bandra Reclamation, Bandra
Cuckoo Club
The way to The Cuckoo Club (TCC) is paved with gambolling kittens and a somnolent black dog, his gentle corpulence a paean to neighbouring Candies' tasty food. TCC is a sister space to Khar's popular culture hub, The Hive, and opened by the same people — Sharin Bhatti and her husband/business partner Sudeip Nair.
Over a seemingly bottomless glass of gondhoraj and strawberry juice (unsweetened), the ebullient Bhatti told us about TCC. "The Cuckoo Club is an extension of the Hive, where we do small events for 50 to 70 people. This space seats about 150. A lot of people over time have told us that they don't have space to perform properly. This should not be a concern for artists and also it should make financial sense for them."
Much like The Hive, TCC aims to re-energise contemporary art and culture. To this end, TCC's black box theatre will be used not just for performances, but also for studio rehearsals, workshops and wellness activities. It will also be a sort of moving art gallery, a space for artists to showcase work.
TCC also has a space for Collab (its co-working space) and a cafe, where the menu will be all-day dining - sandwiches, burgers, pastas, salads but also regular lunch thalis. "A lot of Collab members want proper meals," explains Bhatti. "Nobody wants to have a sandwich for lunch every day."
Pali Hill Road, Next to Learner’s Academy, Bandra (near Candies)
Design Museum Dharavi
Visiting here was the most fun we’ve ever had at a museum. The exhibits are colourful and accessible, and on our visit, the space had been happily taken over by a throng of Dharavi residents and visitors, all of whom were chattering away like starlings. It's colourful hawker's cart and the artefacts that rest on it (brooms, tea cups, etc that were designed and created by the extraordinarily talented residents) are happily bereft of the lofty, high-mindedness of a dusty old museum. It is a vital celebration of overlooked everyday items.
The museum, which is the work of Jorge Mañes Rubio (Seethisway), Amanda Pinatih (MADE Pinatih), Rahul Srivastava and Matias Echanove (URBZ) is nomadic, travelling from place to place all within Dharavi.
On a long-distance call to Amsterdam, co-founders Mañes Rubio and Pinatih told us, "We would like to change the lens through which people view Dharavi's residents — not as cheap labour and limited skills but with real creative potential and an ability to explore new products. We would also like to use design as a tool to empower Dharavi and are looking into ways for the local community to get full ownership of the museum."
Pinatih and Mañes Rubio are inspired by the simple things: the copious amount of chai that is drunk every day, the resident's unswerving love for cricket — all of which has found its way into the museum. "We wanted to engage with the local community and are simply giving a space for this collaboration," they said. "We hope to replicate this in settlements around the world."
Look out for: the wheels of the pushcart. They are painted yellow and purple, which is apparently a kind of secret code that tells the municipality not to dismantle the pushcart and carry it away.
Email: info@designmuseumdharavi.org or call +918433759573 for directions
