Visual synergies for Covid times

In a new online exhibition, the works displayed explore the subtext of anxiety.

The last few months have been challenging and have necessitated strategies to realign priorities and modes of working. In the art world too, the focus has shifted to online initiatives, community-centric approaches and sustainable models that are resilient.

One of the initiatives that I’m part of now — is a collective formed recently with three artists from Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai, in an attempt to adapt to the new situational paradigms. The first project of this collective is an online exhibition ‘Convergence’, hosted and presented on Art Scene India.

Effects of the lockdown

The ongoing exhibition features drawings, sculptures and mixed media works by artists Shanthamani Muddaiah, Shivani Aggarwal and Minal Damani, whose works are deeply informed by environment and gender sensitivities as well as social, political and geographical concerns, all of which are of critical relevance in the contemporary context. Most of the art exhibited has been produced during the pandemic, and therefore, the subtext explores the associated apprehensions and the effects of the lockdown, social distancing, the migrant workers’ crisis and the all-pervasive anxiety that today dogs all of us.

Shanthamani’s sculptures in graphite, fibreglass and aluminum are derived from her agrarian surroundings and the impact of urbanisation on farming communities, their displacement and issues related to migration. She laments the lack of consideration for ecology, environment and culture, while embracing development. Exploitation of human and natural resources and capitalism as the dominant culture forms a prominent motif in her works. The outstretched palms refer to the poignancy of the anonymous human beings involved in construction and outsourced labour and the perception that strips them of dignity and views them as a mere commodity.

Embedded symbolism

Shivani explores the complexities of linkages between physical and intangible elements and her mixed media works map constructs around ethos, culture, gender and identity. The visuals are embedded with symbolism, representing notions of the self, while exploring emotional flux and confinements of space in response to the situational crisis. She reflects upon the lockdown phase and the sense of isolation, the restrictions on work, movement and the overriding sense of entrapment. The crocheted wire is symbolic of the trap, which is largely self created on multiple levels — psychological, physical, mental and emotional.

Minal’s works emanate from a deeply autobiographical space, tracing intricate maps of the rise and fall of financial stocks as a direct outcome of fiscal uncertainties and economic fallouts due to the pandemic. Her current series of drawings act as a witness to these times, documenting the volatility of the financial markets in conjunction with the prevailing emotional turmoil. The diagrams form a documentation of the pandemic experience, recording every second of the working hours of financial markets. Translated into graphical representations and forming imaginary bodies/structure, in a way, they form a device for timekeeping in the current situation of confinement.

The exhibition is on till 23 August.

The author is a Bangalore-based art consultant, curator and writer. She blogs at Art Scene India and can be reached on [e-mail]

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