409 Ramkinkars Sculptural Installation and Theatre
TAKE on art|July - December 2016

When Ramkinkar was asked whether he privileged sculpture or painting, he said “I ride two horses at the same time”. He rode a third  horse as well and this was performance — theatre and song — which he loved with equal passion. The project, 409 Ramkinkars, proposed the aesthetics of installation as a prompt for theatre. And the other way around — theatre as a prompt to conceive an installation.

Vivan Sundaram
409 Ramkinkars Sculptural Installation and Theatre

Just as site specific installations take  from architecture the plan and structure of objects in space, theatre is present within installation practice as a performative mis-enscène. The positioning of sculptural forms, the presence of the (spectator’s) body within an immersive ambience; these and many other attributes make installation art and theatre twinned genres.

I proposed to my colleagues in theatre, Anuradha Kapur and Santanu Bose, that Ramkinkar’s third horse be set off on a new journey — and on a road that takes unexpected turns. Or that his boat (another of Ramkinkar’s metaphors) be set afloat  on choppy waters. Even as Ramkinkar tested a wide range of linguistic approaches to evolve his modernist practice — often shifting between figurative and  abstract bodies — he found support in the Santiniketan ethos. This enabled him to make monumental outdoor sculptures in the space of the university which itself became a performative act with public value. Recognising this, we felt that Ramkinkar’s acuity, his practice as well as his renowned charisma, would do very well within the genre of what is called promenade, or immersive, theatre. At the IGNCA, we used the wide frame of the architecturally diverse buildings and the large garden-compound for this purpose.

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Complete Love
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Delicate Animals
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Delicate Animals

The humidity is sabotage and my skin is undone. I’ve always had a preference for dryness. While other women fear wrinkles, I never mind the beginnings of a crease. They seem cleaner, those intersecting lines. But then I’ve never been afraid of getting older, of being an abstraction.

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Falling In Love (Again): India's Weaves Story

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As soon as you enter the exhibition space in Bikaner House, the display ahead sort of takes your breath away. It’s a carefully crafted mise-enscène, filled with dangling screens, suspended sequins, overflowing jewellery boxes, glass displays, and more. And yet, in spite of the exquisite setting, and the props that inhabit it, your focus never wavers from the clothes, which form the essence of the exhibition.

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July - December 2017
why do artists write on art?
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why do artists write on art?

once, there were newspaper reviews. they connected art writing to the artist and to an audience, with immediacy.

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2 mins  |
july - december 2016
A Writer's Discourse
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A Writer's Discourse

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July - December 2017
The Smuggler: A Mural By Sadequain
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Ghosts Of Ghan-Town
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Ghosts Of Ghan-Town

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July - December 2017
Kerala Boy
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Kerala Boy

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July - December 2017
Fictioning The Landscape: Robert Smithson And Ruins In Reverse
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Fictioning The Landscape: Robert Smithson And Ruins In Reverse

That zero panorama seemed to contain ruins in reverse, that is – all the new construction that would eventually be built. This is the opposite of the ‘romantic ruin’ because the buildings don’t fall into ruin after they are built but rather rise into ruin before they are built. –Robert Smithson, “A Tour of the Monuments of Passaic, New Jersey”

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