India Through the Eves of Artists

The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998 at London's Barbican Centre asks questions about the ideas of state and its complex relationship with the citizen.

- ANWESH BANERJEE

The ongoing exhibition, titled The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998, at the Barbican Centre in London ends with four images of the late artist Rummana Hussain.

Photographed as part of her final performance, the stills provocatively hark back to the poignant questions that lie at the heart of her swansong, Is it what you think? (1998): “Have you defined her? Is she the other? Do you pity her? Is that your construct? Is it a predicament?” Hussain’s words, uttered as a rebuke to the patriarchy and majoritarianism plaguing Indian society in the ’90s, are perhaps the closest one can come to while describing this equal-parts gargantuan and historic exhibition of 150 works of multi-media art spanning a little more than two decades of contemporary Indian history. Through the prism of art, it urges us to ask questions about the ideas of state and its complex, ever-evolving relationship with the citizen. By the end of it, one wonders what truly is the monolith we call India, and to whom does it truly belong?