CATEGORIES
MAPS OF A NEW REALITY
Death is the connecting thread between ancient Roman masks and recent surgical masks. Both types of masks deal with identity: the historic ones preserve while the contemporary ones conceal.
The Cities Within
Georgina Maddox spots three artists assessing their locations.
The Evolving Gesture
Artists take Four Positions on excavating form, states Mario D’ Souza.
Cast in Shadows
Jitish Kallat’s new show maps the transformation of bodies in relation to cosmic elements and cosmological rhythms as opposed to industrial clock-time, reveals Anuj Daga.
PROPHETIC VISIONS
Immediately after the nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 24, things were exceptionally bad in Goa, which had already been shuttered earlier in the week.
Against the System
From confronting white hegemony in the field of knowledge to menstrual taboos and patriarchal control of domestic spaces, a group show documents the art of dissent in all its varieties, informs Adwait Singh.
Cartography Of The Psyche
An atlas of visual cryptograms and missives to extra-terrestrials are part of Jitish Kallat’s new public address. K. Sridhar unlayers the references.
The Exhibitionary Complex
Shows with layered themes dot Panjim on the occasion of the Serendipity Arts Festival. Meera Menezes pays a visit.
Art In The Time Of The Pandemic
Sangita Jindal, Shireen Gandhy, Atul Dodiya and Abhay Sardesai assess the looming crisis and discuss the way ahead.
Fact and Friction
The second edition of the Lahore Biennale addresses conflicts of history and explores a range of issues that include religious strife and the climate crisis, observes Quddus Mirza.
City of Desires
Nalini Malani’s recent exhibitions produce ways of re-examining history and culture, observes Pooja Savansukha.
Scars of History
Over the last sixty years, the figure and the face have indexed political traumas and emotional crises in Jogen Chowdhury’s works, states Geeti Sen.
New Questions in a New Time
Premjish Achari talks to gallerists, organisers and viewers about the recently concluded India Art Fair, and ruminates on the role of the art critic at an art fair and of the art fair in turbulent times.
Sharing the Future
The Dhaka Art Summit revisits colonial pasts and devises collective strategies for the present, points out Abhijan Toto.
Resisting the Apocalypse
Prabhakar Pachpute’s works combine an activist’s anger with a romantic’s despair, states Rita Datta.
Artist in Residence
Shapeshifting homes, houses on wheels and diagrammatic dwellings: Zarina’s solo at the KNMA underscores a preoccupation with the shifting idea of identity, suggests Meera Menezes.
A BOMBAY PARSI IN DELHI AND LONDON
Gallerist and curator Mortimer Chatterjee discusses why Rustom Siodia should be considered an important presence in pre-Independence Indian art history.
The Power Of Words
Artists use text in a variety of ways – as narrative, as social and political critique, as gibberish. Anirudh Chari reads the works of artists from Bengal.
The Writing on the Wall
From amplifying the female voice to framing letters of appeal, Indian artists have used text inventively. Shubhalakshmi Shukla launches into a discussion.
RECORD OF THE CHANGING WORLD
Video art and its emerging issues: Anuj Daga visits the VAICA festival.
Reading between the Lines
Vaishnavi Ramanathan provides a brief survey of artists from Chennai who use words and scripts in their works.
Into the Light
Through scenes of homosocial bonhomie, tipsy merriment, languid repose, playtime and luncheons, Salman Toor presents a make-believe world of normalised and unalienated queer life, says Adwait Singh.
How Things Still Matter
Bhrigupati Singh presides over a conversation between Martand Khosla’s 1: 2500 and Jessica Stockholder’s Stuff Matters.
FLYING IN THE FACE OF AUTHORITY
The most persuasive curators at the annual Experimenter Hub in Kolkata believe in dismantling structures of power and prejudice, finds Chintan Girish Modi.
Flesh and Bone
Abhay Sardesai considers the contract between word and image in the works of eight artists.
Conversations with Oneself
Dhruva Mistry’s colourful figures joyfully introspect, claims Chintan Girish Modi.
Tear, Rupture, Repair
Mario D’Souza presents artists who use fabrics, threads and textiles to sew and stitch experiences of displacement, create objects of desire and frame portents of ecological disaster.
PUNE CALLING
TIFA is trying to re-vitalise the cultural life of the city with micro-residencies and experimental programming
LOOM OF LIFE, TEXTURES OF TIME
Priyansha Jain traces the deep weave of Monika Correa’s journey.
Ways of Belonging
Jangarh Singh Shyam is a site of confluence. A folk imagination and modern expressive modes speak to each other in his works. Amit Kumar Jain looks at the divided figure.