Art in public

It was like any other day at Chennai's Marina Beach — a popular hangout zone for people of all ages. There was the familiar sight of the soothsayer with his caged parrot, women palmists, bustling young vendors of sundal (boiled lentils), ice-cream carts and other attractions… Right in the middle of this everyday scene, people found themselves stopping and examining installations of tiny flags, wind wanes and a number of sand sculptures lining the shore.

Spread out, literally, right under their nose, this was an art project titled “Catastrophe” that was curated by Koumudi Patil as part of Art Chennai 2012, a nine-day event that aimed to bring art closer to the public/ public spaces. The corporate sponsors for this “festival of modern and contemporary art in South India” included the CII and Tamil Nadu Tourism Department, which aimed to “grow the art industry in South India”.

Besides taking paintings, photos and installations to various galleries and public venues such as railway stations and malls, the annual event, in its second year, included conferences at which artists, historians, art collectors and the public interacted.

At suburban stations the walls were mounted with photographs under a project organised by Goethe-Institut and Travelling Lens.

At Marina Beach, “I am Angry”, an installation by Sanjeev Khandekar and Vaishali Narkar, reflected on the turmoil of the poor in an increasingly lopsided society, where the gap between the haves and have–nots keeps widening. The artists expressed their anguish at the capitalism and market-driven lives that have reduced human beings to two-legged cost centres. “Both Nature and humanity are injured by the greed of few. Therefore we are angry and do not have anything to do but flag it out.” And so they installed hundreds of flags along the shore and on wooden scaffolding, each screaming out “I am Angry…”

Reflecting on the poignant depiction, as one walked further and bumped into a fisherman — who was not part of the composition! — mending his net for the next day's catch, the eternal question pops up: Does art mirror life, or does life inspire art? A red pyramid structure by Subodh Kerkar had chappals strewn inside. This evoked eerie memories of lives lost to the devastating tsunami in 2004.

Although the installations on Marina Beach were excellent creative works, they somehow didn't appear to make a significant connect with the average beach visitor. The reasons could be several. Not many appeared aware of the ongoing festival. Perhaps a few signboards may have helped, especially as the city still remains new to the concept of art in public places. The theme boards near the installations proved rather inadequate for this.

Among the gallery exhibits, “Let the World In: Narrative and Beyond in Contemporary Indian Art”, at Lalit Kala Akademi, was unique because it represented three generations of artists. Curated by Chaitanya Sambrani, the concept is based on the theory that post-colonial people/ artists saw themselves as legitimate inheritors of multiple traditions. This assertion galvanised a reinvention of tradition to accommodate a sense of local as well as international belonging. Nilima Sheikh's “Studies for Rozgar” had brush drawings of rural folk at work, and Arpita Singh's “Exile” essayed the moving milieu.

“Consumption” had a couple of digital prints on paper by Vivan Sundaram under the caption ‘Barricade', portraying the chaos of used and waste material. Another canvas had a plate with half-eaten food. An installation called “Metal Box” had rows of liquor bottle caps. The theme warned that the “aftermath of consumption haunted the present, no matter how hard we try to defer it”.

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