THE young artists are no more sticking to the canvas but making the 35mm their springboard as they now convert their ideas into a video, keeping with the tech savvy generation. Popularly known as video art, it is catching up as global exposure and young minds are compelling
Indian galleries and curators to become more accepting of experimental art.
What makes it exclusive, according to gallery owner Payal Kapoor of Arushi Arts, is the fact that only five to
maximum nine editions are made available of the video and more interested parties have to shell out a multiplied amount to own it. Also, it is accompanied by an authenticated certified letter of the artist like a signature on a painting, says Kapoor. And while the roll stretches to maximum fifteen minutes, a piece of video art costs anything above Rs 50,000.
With global exposure, people are also viewing art differently, which is why buyers now prefer to have an animated scrolling piece of art on the wall playing on their plazma in the background even as they entertain. Artist and co owner of Epace Art Gallery, Vibha Malhotra, says, “Having a Vivan Sundaram playing on your wall is like having a Satyajit Ray on your shelf”.
It is also another endeavour by Indian artists who are trying to match the demands of foreign curators who are flocking to India in search of new talent with fresh concepts. Artist and sculptor Manjunath Kamath himself is busy preparing to showcase his new video art at the Soul Flower gallery in Bangkok where he has been invited to participate in a video art exhibition.
He says, “While I have been doing it for the last eight years, it is only
now that it is getting showcased in our own galleries through which foreign curators are getting to know about my video arts”. Earlier, he says, galleries were only showcasing paintings, and the slightly daring ones, sculptures as they considered it “pretty”. However, techonologically-enabled art is now in demand. Also it is helping the artists convey their thoughts more effectively, as they are able to put voice and action to the sequences. Artist Gigi Scaria whose works are related to issues and observations based on life in cities, feels he’s able to employ his sense of composition into the making of a video and so even though he is not trained in film making, he is able to successfully make one.
His recent work that was sold out was called ‘Panic City’ that gave a bird’s eye-view of the old city of Delhi and using flash animation he made the buildings dance along with western classical orchestra to make it come alive. Scaria says, “It’s another language altogether that painters, sculptors and photographers can indulge in to develop an idea”.
It is also being seen as a medium for socio-political messages while being imaginative. Kamath’s video art titled ‘Talk’ is making waves just for this reason. Kamath says, “Keeping my usual sense of humour intact, in ‘Talk’ I deal with the issue of fear and desire through a dialogue between two clay-mation figures, which actually represent India and Pakistan.”
The figures are just clay lumps in
the beginning, reminding the viewer
of the mythology of origins. When one of the figures takes shape into a human head and looks at the other, he turns into a lump of clay. This game is played between them for sometime as if they were trying to outwit each other. Kamath does not think he could utilise the same time sculpting but thinks its an extension of his art fancy where he can “make the characters play about for a deeper meaning yet never making it literal like films”.
With the opening of private museums, this innovative form of art is poised to grow as owners want to be seen as contemporary and avant garde.