TAKE on art - July - December 2015

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TAKE Studio

Contrary to the white cube, the artist’s studio is where the art object is vulnerable, not sacrosanct. It is touched, moulded, destroyed, built, lived and not merely displayed, subject to sanctioned iconoclasm and vandalism. The studio houses not-so- sublime back-stories of painstaking labour, paint-smeared overalls and the odd worn out desktop running on Windows XP. It is an incubation space: for ideas – tangible or intangible, art – material or immaterial, commodities – sellable or impending dismantlement. It is often treated as the assembly line for artworks. Then there are the apparent paradoxes that remind us that the studio and its constituents too have their aura, not just charm. It is the temple for the process, and the process is no less. The process too is art. Francis Bacon’s studio was meticulously recreated and displayed, down to the last speck of dust at the Hugh Lane Gallery, for permanent display. Rabindranath Tagore’s pocket book with doodles and notes, a prototype for the idea of the mobile studio, was recently auctioned for Rs. 20,625,000 by Christie’s in India.
In guises varying from computer desktops to massive industrial spaces, studios escape essentialised definitions. This issue of TAKE tours this expanse of implications to map and question the conceptual and physical domain of the studio.

- Excerpt from the Editor's Note, Bhavna Kakar

With contributions from Amrita Varma, Andrea Fernandes, Anushka Rajendran, Bharti Lalwani, Bhavna Kakar, Dayanita Singh, Deepanjana D. Klein, Diana Campbell Betancourt, Dr. Alka Pande, Dr. Seema Bawa, Georgina Maddox, Gopika Nath, Ina Puri, Juliana Driever, Manisha Gera Baswani, Meera Menezes, Mustafa Zaman, Nikhil Raunak, Oindrilla Maity Surai, Pooja Iranna, Raqs Media Collective, Samit Das, Shivani Chandra, Shubhalakshmi Shukla, Suresh Jayaram, The Phantom Lady and Waswo X. Waswo.

TAKE on art Magazine Description:

TAKE on art, the leading art magazine in India published bi-annually from New Delhi since 2009, comprehensively covers, reports and critiques art and cultural events from India and abroad. Led by Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, Bhavna Kakar, TAKE follows a critical approach to the larger discourse on art through curated issues with contributions by leading writers and critics from across the globe. The magazine has been invested in sustaining critical writing practices in India not just through its own capacity as a publication but also by organising initiatives that try to generate discourse, and keep conversations alive. In the past, the publication has organised writing workshops under the TAKE on Writing series as well as hosted the TAKE TALK series. Significant projects in this direction include TAKE on Residency, in collaboration with IFA at 1 Shanthi Road, Bangalore in 2013, TAKE on Writing, Critic-Community: Contemporary Art Writing at Sunaparanta Centre for the Arts, Goa in 2014 and more recently, Take on Writing - Critical Writing Ensemble (CWE) Baroda Chapter at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda in December 2015 and the CWE Dhaka Chapter, conceptualised by Katya Garcia Anton, in collaboration with OCA, Norway at the Dhaka Art Summit in 2016 supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council. The most recent TAKE on Writing initiatives included The Book – The New Writing Group, a workshop led by Chus Martínez and Ingo Niermann supported by Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council and The Book – Ensemble, both held in New Delhi in December 2016.

The magazine has travelled internationally to events such as Art Basel, Art Basel HK, Art Basel Miami, Dhaka Art Summit and Asia Triennale Manchester, as well as collaborated with landmark events locally such as Experimenter Curator's Hub (2011 - 2016), Insert 2014, Sarai Reader 09: Episode 1, 2 and 3, Amrita Sher-Gil National Art Week and Delhi Photo Festival.