JOIN USThe Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) forum is organising an ‘art marathon’ till May 11 as a unique form of protest against the alleged efforts to privatise the gallery. It is different from a usual exhibition in that every artist will get exactly 45 minutes to display their work.
Each day is divided into 9 slots and each slot will have 4 to 5 artists at one time. Works on display include cartoons, paintings and installations which combined creativity, individualism and in some cases, technical expertise.
The work of Surekha, artist and VAG forum member, is one such example. She has created a video project called ‘Follow the sound of the river’ which includes microscopic images of water molecules. Surekha collaborated with artists from around the world and they sent her water samples from places like Switzerland, China, the US etc for her project. These samples were collected from different sources of water like taps, lakes, rivers and even rain.
H A Anil Kumar, a teacher of art history at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, presented images to invoke memories of his 20 year long association with Santiniketan, first as a student and subsequently as a teacher. His colourful drawings include brief descriptions of the scene or persons he has portrayed to help people understand the work better. “I want the audience to read meanings in my art works rather than just look at them,” he says.
The people coming to see the art marathon have exactly 45 minutes to observe the works and talk to the creators. With interactions involving live doodling sessions and clicking photos with the artists, this time almost always falls short. But no extensions are given and a loud countdown starts when only 30 seconds are left for 1 slot to finish. As soon as the time is over, artists carry away their works and the next batch rushes to put up their paintings. There is an air of excitement and enthusiasm throughout the day. And artists are pleased to do their bit to save an important part of the city’s heritage from being privatised.
“VAG belongs to us emotionally and ethically but not legally,” Anil Kumar says. “This is our attempt to talk to the government in a language we know. We don’t want to resort to the normal mode of protesting. A good thing that came out of this protest is that a unity is being seen in the art community in the past 3 months which was not visible in the past 3 decades.”
Smitha Cariappa agrees and is pleased to do her bit for the movement. “ My work is part of a larger interactive installation that I did in 1999. The subject is ‘blue denim jeans’.” Smitha’s installation comprises of lines of poetry stitched on pieces of denim cloth which are arranged together in a neat line on the floor, instantly commanding a visitor’s attention. “I have always been interested in working with cloth. It is like our second skin so I wanted to extend my art to this thing which is so intimate to all of us. The poems featured in my work have all been based on either one of the 3 words — blue, denim or jeans.”
The ‘art marathon’ also includes performances, sculptures and multimedia presentations.