Autohangar, Mumbai. 25 – 27 November 2006

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WILD THICKETS AND GARDEN PLANTS

Art writes a nation. It also writes a locale or region. However, no art
is region specific in our contemporary times. Thanks to the proliferation
of communication systems and the resultant breaking down of
distance, regions are in the process of a collapse. Art, while yielding
to this imminent collapse, tries to resist it in certain ways, thereby
generating a discourse on its capacity to denote the specific locations
of origin. Indian art history clearly shows that whatever art passed
off in the name of ‘Indian art’ has its specific locations of origin.

Specificity of location, as far as art is concerned, is a boon and a doom
at the same time. Aesthetic qualities are determined and judged by
taking location as the parameter. Qualities and peculiarities of the
location are attributed to the very making and worth of the art
produced. Colours and hues of the locale would come to substantiate
the palette selection of the artist. Interpretation takes a detour
through (auto) biographical allies, rendering the artist a chronicler of
his or her locale.

In India, artists known by the name of their native place are not a
new thing. Each period in Indian modern art history we see certain
region becoming important in aesthetic production. Notwithstanding
various factors that facilitate this fancy for a particular location, it
should be said that if some artists from a region are able to produce
a set of worthy works of art in a certain period, that region or locale
suddenly falls in focus. Whichever artist hails from that location
becomes important for the reasons that need no more explanation.

At this juncture, I would say that it is not art what writes the locale
and the nation but the locale and the nation write the artist or art.
This reverse phenomenon has its own problems in terms of definition
and interpretation. However, the recent Indian art history shows that
there is a mad rush towards artists who hail from certain regions in
India. The location of their origin makes them very important
irrespective of the aesthetics produced by them. Kerala has been in
focus for sometime now. And having Malayali artists in a show has
become a fad.

Malayali artists are everywhere. But none has so far asked whether
there is a Malayali aesthetics. Some art historians who do not see
beyond the immediate, of late have formulated that mediatic realism
is the Malayali aesthetic forte. Mediatic realism, which has been a fad
in the last decade, is now in a waning mode. It is an indisputable fact
that mediatic realism was diligently practiced and popularized by some
Malayali artists. But that does not mean that all the Malayali artists
do mediatic realism. There was a misconception in 2005 that one of
the predominant Malayali shows had been conceived to consolidate
and celebrate the victory of ‘Mediatic Malayali Realism’ (over any other
kind of artistic expression).

In fact, if at all there is a Malayali aesthetics that is quite historytime-
location specific. These three factors determine the art of Malayali
artists. Malayali artists, as known to everyone now, are not functioning
from their location of origin. Most of them are not even referring to
the nostalgic past that they spent in Kerala. However, I would say
that most of the Malayali artists produce their art out of a strong
historical awareness. This awareness should be seen as the only
connecting link between different Malayali artists functioning from
different location in the country and elsewhere.

Homogeneity of artistic expression is a false notion, especially when
it comes to the Malayali artists. Each artist has a special way of
expressing himself or herself. In their art, they try to write the location
and time of their finding and they do write back to a location that had
once determined them ideologically. A constant engagement with the
location of their finding (place, space, history, politics, economics etc)
makes their art as varied as a garden, pruned, cared and tended.
Once they were like wild thickets growing unruly. Now they have
achieved the sophistication of garden plants.

JohnyML
November, 2006

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