Step Inside and You Are No Longer a Stranger

Vivan Sundaram First Retrospective, knma new delhi

Indira Lakshmi Prasad

Walking into the exhibition is somewhat like stepping into an alternate universe. The sheer scale of the display, the architecture of KNMA, along with the compelling use of lighting enables a completely immersive experience.The sculpture placed at the exhibition’s entrance certainly sets the scene for the rest. The work ‘The One and The Many’ features a swarm of miniaturized terracotta figures based on the sculptures of Ramkinar Baij, stretching over 33m, plays with the familiarity of repetition. The individual sculptures are miniaturized reproductions of Ramkinar Baij’s sculptures; the improvised terracottas became Baij’s readymades, mass produced by another artist and his colleagues several years later.

The backbone of this artist’s oeuvre, over the years, has been unapologetically political, and the retrospective displays not only the material evolution of Sundaram’s works but also the ideological journey over the course of his career. The artist is a self proclaimed ‘child of 1968’ as he was studying in London at The Slade School of Art at the time of the student protests. 1968 was a particularly momentous year politically in England as it was in this year that Enoch Powell orated his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech which legitimized antimmigration and racist sentiments in the United Kingdom

The backbone of this artist’s oeuvre, over the years, has been unapologetically political, and the retrospective displays not only the material evolution of Sundaram’s works but also the ideological journey over the course of his career. The artist is a self proclaimed ‘child of 1968’ as he was studying in London at The Slade School of Art at the time of the student protests. 1968 was a particularly momentous year politically in England as it was in this year that Enoch Powell orated his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech which legitimized antimmigration and racist sentiments in the United Kingdom