SHIFTING PARADI GM:
Looking at the Anxious Indian Visual

H.A. Anil Kumar

One should be ‘watch’ful about seeing; and more so about how it is ‘getting’ altered, because, if it is (as and when) relocated, there must be a reason other than spontaneity, to make it seem genuine. ‘How is it’ is more politically appropriated than ‘what is it’, while glancing at them. After a point, it is a time to be anxious when the former decides the latter – Anon

In the dialogue which was part of a curated show consisting of Indian artists, at Langenthal (Switzerland, May 2015), an Indian artist and tutor from a contemporary Indian art school was insisting that no matter what, an artwork compulsorily contains within itself the culture from wherein it hails. However, his tone within what seemed to be a cliché and generalization was that, such a ‘cultural-belongingness’ has now become a compulsive aspect, in discourses as well as the political engagements around these visuals. In other words, the ‘cultural specificity’ of visual artworks produced in India is the first thing that seems to be in the back of one’s mind, as an assurance as well as a warning. If one remembers the saga behind the legendary controversy inherent in Husain’s artwork “Saraswathi”, there was a ‘distance’ of two decades between its creation and the controversy around it.