Events In India.com

New Delhi: To mark the opening of a new gallery space, Latitude 28 in Lado Sarai, curator and gallerist Bhavna Kakar presents Size Matters or Does It? – a unique exhibition that questions the conventional notions about the apt size of an art work. The exhibition is on from March 9, 2010 to March 10, 2010 at LATITUDE 28, F/208, Lado Sarai, New Delhi.

The show unravels the question of size in its many facets. On one hand, institutional forces and the art market can play an important role in the unfolding of art history. A large (or small) artwork may be deemed more or less desirable with size as a primary criterion of judgment, although these estimations may crumble under closer investigation. After all, does big always mean more?

Secondly, size can be a method of resistance and formal critique in a work. As a strategy of representation, exploding and contracting images can extend its meaning and alter a viewer’s encounter with the work. Exaggerated sizes can disturb, provoke and even bring out the humor in art. It can also evoke feelings of alienation and displacement. The human tendency to find an anchor in comparable and relative sameness furnishes size with the ability to suggest difference.

Thus, the show display focuses on the relevance of the size of an art work by utilising a reversal of sizes! Hence, each participating artist has provided two works, a very large work (such as G.R Iranna’s 4.5×16.5 feet canvas titled Kawwali) juxtaposed with a small-format work by the same artist. Similarly, Pooja Iranna’s small installation made with staple pins titled Converging/ Segregating is a small size work juxtaposed with her bigger work titled Discovering in 33×13x28 inches.

The participating artists include: Arunkumar H.G., Baiju Parthan, Chittrovanu Mazumdar, Dilip Chobisa, G R Iranna, Mithu Sen, Manjunath Kamath, Pooja Iranna, Pushpamala N, Sarnath Banerjee, Prajakta Palav and Siddhartha Kararwal.
Says Bhavna Kakar, Director, Latitude 28: “The motive of the show is not to establish the commercial aspect of art in terms of the size of a work but to look at a gamut of contemporary artists whose works are fresh in approach and concept proving their proficiency at handling both BIG or SMALL format works. Since no specific size was allocated to the artists, their works are their own personal interpretations of the title Size Matters or Does It?”
This show is a sequel to Bhavna Kakar’s previously curated show on the same concept of ‘size’, the difference being that the first edition had only small format works – ranging from photographs by Niyeti Chadha, a 1 inch x 1 inch book by Thukral and Tagra and small paper installations by Ashim Purkayastha, apart from the more classic drawings on paper and oils.

Size Matters or Does It? adds to this avant-garde approach and continues to display some of the most distinctive artworks by young and senior artists. For instance, Arunkumar’s works uses humor as a method of uncovering the absurdity of size. He uses small figurines in the image of public figures to demonstrate the complexities of memorialization merged with cultural cravings for kitsch. His work titled Does Size Matter? is made from clay wood and plastic gears. It is an interesting and interactive artwork consisting of miniature clay toys placed on a platform controlled with gears. These clay figures would turn around in different directions on rotating any single gear.

If Arunkumar’s participatory toys engage the viewers, on the other hand, Manjunath Kamath’s Twelve small lies locates size in the practices of daily life. Says Manjunath Kamath: “I have made twelve small works in 5 inch by 4 inch which can be symbolically called a series of twelve small lies. Lie is one of the strongest palliatives that the humans have adopted to make life easier. The size may vary…big lies, small lies but they are omnipresent. Through my works, I probe the origin, growth and nature of lies in our society.”

Adds Manjunath Kamath: “For me fiction is more beautiful than reality because it creates a set of lies, which would make life look more real than reality. Each image in the work points to one lie which we innocently use everyday without acknowledging that it is a lie. The work presents pleasing lies which eventually take us to the displeasing truth. It is like a bitter medicine covered in a sweet pill.”

Baiju Parthan subverts the idea of fixed measurements through exploding the microscopic details of a fly in his works titled Ointment. Capturing its relativity to vision and perception, Parthan proposes a conception of size that is unstable and constantly shifting. Parthan explains that: “These two works are about our ideas about the world and to the lengths we go to protect, defend, and propagate them. The very fact that there are many such comprehensive views (most of them religious in character) explaining the universe differently, suggest that these are all products of engagement between the human self awareness and specific geographical environments. One could consider these world views as artifacts of the human mind, similar to a balm or ointment that soothes the sting of our existential predicament – of not knowing why we are here in this world.” Like Parthan, Dilip Chiobsa also plays with altering perceptions of space and time in his painting which manipulates traditions of painterly perspective.

On the other hand, Pushpamala N considers constructions of history in her photographs, particularly the stories and voices of women. Her large and small images engage with histories that are generally unknown. With Lady on Bicycle, the artist explains that “Women learning to ride the bicycle was part of the social reform movement in India, along with women’s education and widow remarriage. It signaled a new freedom and mobility. In the early part of the 20th century, women would pose for studio photographs against painted backdrops with a book in their hand. Spectacles, lady’s purse, book, and umbrella were markers of modernity.”

This show would be followed by Part II of another series of works focusing only on small format works. The participating artists for Part II include: Babu Eshwar Prasad Niyeti Chadha, Manisha Parekh, Minal Damani, Dhruvi Acharya, Chila Kumari Burman, Jayshree Chakravarty, TV Santhosh and Simrin Mehra Agarwal.