SITUATIONISM IN YOUR LIFE

Paramjot Walia

After proving its success in Agra, Sanchit Art Gallery launched its space in DLF Mall, South Delhi. Clearly the owner Sanchit Joshan is unaffected by the recession in the art market. Quoting the optimistic gallerist “Whether the art market is booming or there is a slump is relative to the superficial bar it is compared to; In comparison to 2005, yes the art arket is bad today but if I compare it to 2007 I feel we are at par.” Based on Karl Marx’s ‘Theory of Alienation’ the exhibition titled, ‘Situationism’ defines how every individual, being a mechanistic part of this idyllic society, feels alienated and stranged in respective circumstances/ situations. Curated by Kolkata-based art expert and historian Arun Ghose, the show displays artworks by master artists like Satish Gujral, Jogen Chowdhury, Ganesh Pyne, K. Laxma Goud and Ram Kumar. Arun’s curated show extracts the basis of the capitalist theory and renders its essence to the viewers through the medium of colors. Ganesh Pyne’s series of black unnamed imagery marks a dark brutal trade reflecting his fight with ’IN’, not with ‘OUT’. His monochrome, blacks and greys unveil the dark self, shadowed by the labyrinth of a colorful façade of notions. Ganesh‘s dark images, categorized under ‘surrealism’, explore the elements of harsh realities, resurrecting images lost in the sub-conscious. Jogen Chowdhury’s ‘See my beauty’ subtly questions the safely bracketed perceptions of human beauty and form. Works of the master of the unbroken line may not appeal to a realistic visual sense but his lines and flaccid forms offer a demanded sensuality. The crude distorted form trivializes your sensory boundaries and forces you to comprehend the artist’s psyche. K. Laxma Goud’s paintings of women and goat ridicule society’s ambivalent characteristic relating to innate desires and barbed sexual boundaries. His paintings depict the eroticism in nature through the organic rural life and question the urban sophistication and the idyllic ways of society. By using ‘goat’ as a symbol he leaves it to the viewer’s discretion the interpretation of his pictorial space. Supporting the concept of the show, Satish Gujral’s biggest sculpture, a man on a bicycle freeing himself of chains and Ram Kumar’s works depict how alienated and detached one can feel in a crowded city. Without the support of figures or forms, purely through bold colors Ram Kumar depicts his sense of solitude. Ram Kumar’s powerful narrative strokes depict not the architectural beauty of Varanasi but the loneliness and apathy which the city offers to a visitor/dweller. These abstract works are epilogues of the artist’s visit and experience of the city. The show reflected the innards jostle between existentialism and alienation with few works antagonizing the idyllic society while others being metaphors of suppressed anguish and pain. The show scoffs at the viewer’s theory of existence and makes him contemplate on “Situationism” in his own life perspective.