Art Rises for Kerala Auction Showcases Masterworks for Post-Flood Aid

A Preview Exhibition in Support of the Chief Minister's Relief Fund Opens to the Public

Kochi, Jan 4: Kochi Biennale Foundation has opened a preview exhibition for works that will be part of the Ark Rises for Kerala (ARK) relief auction on January 18, 2019. The auction, being held in collaboration with Mumbai-based auction house SaffronArt, is an effort to bring together the Indian and global art community to aid those affected by the disastrous Kerala floods in August of last year. All proceeds from the auction, the first of its kind to ever be held in Kerala, will be directed to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund, which is working to rebuild damaged infrastructure all over the state.

 

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Renowned artists, Indian and international, along with individual collectors, have generously contributed a wide range of modern and contemporary works to go under the hammer. An exhibition of the works is being held starting from January 5th at Bastion Bungalow, a heritage property by the sea in Fort Kochi. The preview is a great opportunity for interested art viewers, in addition to viewing the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, to see works by master artists shown in Kerala for the first time.

Artists featured in the auction include significant figures from Indian art history, like Amrita Sher-Gil, as well as contemporary masters like Anish Kapoor, A Ramachandran, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Anju and Atul Dodiya, Dayanita Singh, Manisha Parekh, Madhvi and Manu Parekh, Velu Viswanathan, Madhusudhanan, Shilpa Gupta, and Mithu Sen. International artists include Francesco Clemente and Robert Montgomery.

 

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Bose Krishnamachari, President of Kochi Biennale Foundation, remarked on Kochi Biennale Foundation's strong bond with artists fostered over the years. "Artists have shown great solidarity with our core values and ever-growing initiatives. The Art Rises for Kerala auction is a chance for the global art community to come together and stand with Kerala in its time of need. We are grateful and humbled by the warm support from the art community for our home state, and very proud to exhibit these works to a public audience."

Preview of artworks that will be part of the Art Rises for Kerala relief auction held at Bastion Bungalow,

Reciting tale and painting: Biennale hosts Gond art painting workshop

Kochi, Jan 4: As he sits before a circle of curious onlookers, Subhash Vyam recites a mythological tale his ancestors have passed down through generations as members of the Gond tribe. The students, mostly children, try to create images from the episode they just heard.

Giving colours with brush to folk stories is the essence of Gond art on which a workshop is on at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. Vyam, into his middle age, is leading the three-day event at Fort Kochi’s Cabral Yard, a venue of the 108-day art festival.

The leafy locale has at its western side an ‘art room’, where a set of participants are busy making paint using natural pigments: red mitti (mud), turmeric and green plants. These are ingredients essential to Gond art that traces its history to ancient times and adivasis of central India. Vyam, along with his son Man Singh, also trains the students ways to make the paints.

Dikshitha V Sanoj, an upper-primary student with a local school, is fascinated by Vyam’s tale. “It is about a boy who fell in love with a fish,” she gushes, sharing her enthusiasm in making images of the gill-bearing creature.

“Well, hold your brush straight,” says Vyam to the children who are busy painting on paper. “It’s good to guide children with good degree of talent.”

On the first two days, Vyam recited the tales for the children. “On the third and final day, I am giving students a chance to recite stories themselves and paint,” he adds

Gond artist Subhash Vyam trains students on the central Indian tribal painting at a three-day workshop

The January 3-5 workshop is being organised by the Kochi Biennale Foundation as part of its program called ABC (Art By Children) that generally finds the participation by adults as well. Blaise Joseph, who heads the ABC programme, points out that Gond art is typically done on cloth, but the children at the workshop are being given paper because it is their familiar surface.

“Red stone, laterite stone, common turmeric, green leaves and the like goes into making of colours,” Blaise explains. “We have relied on local resources to get each of the material.”

  

Australian Pharan Dennis, who on his visit to Kochi and the Biennale, was among the early trainees at the workshop. “Quite a surprise…this indigenous style,” shrugs the visitor, who teaches art in a primary school Down Under.

Ganga Nair, a homemaker and mural artist, too tried her hand. “I am planning to teach this art to kids around my house,” she adds.

B V Suresh’s biennale work questions censorship by political parties

Kochi, Jan 4: Amid bright sunshine, the main venue of Kochi-Muziris Biennale has an indoor space that is dimly lit. Deliberately. That is at Aspinwall House’s choir godown segment, where the focus is on dark subjects.

It’s a thought-provoking work by B V Suresh against vigilance, mob violence and censorship. The Hyderabad-based artist raises concern about political parties stifling creativity and suppressing dissent.

Using common objects like cane and bamboo along with videos, middle-aged Suresh presents an experimental installation to explore distinct themes, it seeks to portray the current political context which the artist feels feeds off the hate that it generates.

Artist BV Suresh with his installation on display at
Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi 

“The work recreates the absurd theatre of contemporary politics,” says Suresh, a fine arts lecturer who had started as a painter. “Today, we see its episodes unfolding in the ruins of post-colonial dreams of nationhood.”

The biennale work, ‘Canes of Wrath’, aims to present a current dystopian context where liberal voices and great teachings are being manipulated. Or, worse, drowned by blind fury. The 58-year-old, who graduated from Royal College of Art in London, feels that marginalisation begins with the feeling of the art community becoming a major target of attack. This is being led by not only religious fundamentalists, but increasingly profit-driven forces across the world.

The installation is not only thought-provoking but catches viewers attention with the various operational mechanisms used by the artist. The battery-powered cane sticks continuously thumping the floor, the angry Hanuman video and the rotational movements of the broomstick are some of the elements that the artist has used in his installation that compels the viewers to look at the mechanics of the work.        

Suresh’s work features an albino peacock. To him, it represents society having been pushed to the edge of late. “The peacock, which is India’s national bird, is so colourful, you know. Here it comes in white,” points out the artist, who is also part of the Students’ Biennale this year as one of the Educators. “That is to show the country has lost its varied shades. Our diversity is being attacked. The body looks like a rough cut, like a bird that has undergone a post-mortem.”

Artworks by artist BV Suresh on display at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi

Suresh, who teaches at University of Hyderabad, was born in Bangalore. His early years in the Karnataka capital were marked by a sense of alienation. Memories of his humble childhood lead the artist to identify with other groups relegated to the fringes.

“These days, artists are forced to do self-censorship. There is a rising threat to artistic freedom in our country,” he says. At the 108-day biennale, Suresh’s work hails the liberal voices and laments how words of wisdom are being tweaked to mislead vulnerable populations.

The artist’s work speaks of the minorities, the dispossessed, the displaced and the marginalised. “Some of the burnt bread loaves symbolise the burning of the Best Bakery in Baroda,” he notes, referring to the 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat.

Artworks by artist BV Suresh on display at Aspinwall House, Fort Kochi

Courtesy: Kochi Biennale Foundation

Suresh gives lecture at Baroda’s Maharaja Sayajirao University, where the artist had exhibited a similar work. His students from the Gujarat institution are currently on a visit to the biennale. One among them is Narendra, a third-year student of painting. Suresh’s work at Baroda was blunt, the pupil notes. “But here, it seeks to converse with the viewers. It makes them think and analyse present-day politics,” Narendra says. “The work questions narration of history and the effects of mass-media images on society.”