Using art as a medium of protest
By Sharonee Dasgupta & Fathima M
Artistic expressions challenge the status quo and encourage people to ask difficult questions to authorities. And that exactly is what the authorities fear art.
Gully Buoy
By Kamayani Sharma
Rather than fantasies of global superstardom, the dreams and struggles of Khirkee 17 suggest other worthwhile possibilities: of communitarian resistance to market appropriation, of the intrinsic value of a creative life. It’s that spirit that infuses hip-hop and has caused their own lives to be stabilized and enriched, if less dramatically than some of their peers’.
Art in contemporary times
By Rekha Revathy
A tone of superficiality has pervaded present-day visual arts, which remain attractive just on the surface. The capacity of art work to create a sense of solidarity and resistance has reduced to a great extent. Due to abundance of artistic creations and their availability to the public on the online space, the social purpose of art has become banal and diluted.
Presenting Nabil Anani: Palestinian Land and People
By Rana Anani and Bashir Makhoul
Nabil Anani is one of the most prominent Palestinian artists working today. Anani’s development has run in parallel with major events in recent Palestinian history. His work reflects the lived Palestinian experience, exhibiting distinctive responses to issues of exile, dislocation, conflict, memory, and loss. Anani’s artistic vision restores and celebrates a denied and often-forgotten reality, his work re-igniting memory.
Art Work: Mob Pleasure
By Jyotsna Dwivedi
It is at 4 am in the morning every other day now,
When the mob birds, mob cows, mob men and women roam on this land.
Those birds sit on bloody bodies, bathe in their blood, feel giddy with excitement and erection.
Poem: Is it you, Mahisasura?
By Jyotsna Dwivedi
Here are those daughters of mine, who were slaughtered, raped, killed in the womb.
Here are those daughters, who live in fear. Here are those daughters who live in shame.
Flash Fiction: The Artist
By Nishi Pulugurtha
My art is my solace. I paint whenever I feel like it. It makes me feel nice. I passed school, struggled through college. Huge canvasses, paints, brushes are strewn all over my room. I paint when I feel like it; this is my world, my life.
Book Review: Julian Barnes’ ‘The Noise of Time’
By Rahul Vaidya
It certainly reminds one of Orwellian dystopia; however, its focus remains limited. Totalitarianism is one logical symptom of the project of modernity itself. Barnes doesn’t try to explore this. His music thus gets lost in the noise of the times that we live in.
Bhupen Khakhar: Many Facets of an Artist
By Akash Bharadwaj
My recent encounters with Khakhar, be it in the lanes of Daryaganj or going to this exhibition, pushes me to think that it is possible to curate a Bhupen Khakhar show in a more powerful and imaginative manner.
Photo-Essay: Strange Fruit in Bed-Sty
By Mary Ann Chacko
A photo-essay on an installation in memory of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two Black men, killed by the American cops.
A Conversation with Artist, Max Levi Frieder
By Mary Ann Chacko
A conversation with artist, Max Levi Frieder, who works on community art projects.
THE DANCING PAINTER: An Interview with Suresh K. Nair
By Joyce Yarrow
Part of my art practice was sketching, and I became interested in making sketches of moving figures; finally, I began to draw the traditional kathakali dances in my village and started going to other districts of Kerala too.
