About PEERS Share:
PEERS Share is an exhibition to showcase diverse artworks by ten young artists. PEERS is a Khoj flagship residency program that runs annually to encourage and support young and upcoming artists. PEERS residency program receives many applications each year and we are only able to accommodate a few selected applicants for the actual residency. In a bid to extend the conversation, Khoj introduces PEERS Share – an informal dialogue and exhibition with ten applicants who also made it to the short list of the residency.
The PEERS Share residency exhibition 2013 opens on 17th October at Khoj Studios. In a series of posts, we converse with the participants about their work, concepts and choice of medium. Here is a conversation with Janarthan, Parul, Sanket and Roshan – artists working with different visual media (photographs, paintings, sketches).
Artist: Sanket Jadia
Artwork: Happening 06.01.2013
About me: My concern has been to document the ambiance established by the new event by introducing performance as an intervention within the existing monotony of that place. Monochromatic format of photography, execution and the title are a conscious attempt to paint the relationship of ‘Past’ and ‘Present’.
Artist: Parul Gupta
About me: I did my MA in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent University and graduated in Commerce from Delhi University. I picked up art after my graduation when I started to get involved into drawing while working as a multimedia faculty. Creating drawings and animations through software was never satisfying and wanted a medium with which I could connect to. Majorly I am self taught by engaging myself into reading, talks, visiting exhibitions, pursuing certificate courses from Triveni Kala Sangam and National Museum, before pursuing MA Fine Art from NTU.
My work: The work I am presenting is a set of six drawings where the line has extended from the photograph into the space of the paper, responding to the form, gradation and space in the photograph. The photographs are based on the interventions done by the controlled and the uncontrolled lights in the apartment I inhabited while living in Mumbai. These interventions take place in the form of geometry and gradation in a particular time and space. I had to be constantly aware of my surrounding where different lights, alone and together, construct these lines and thus forming shapes. What motivates me the most is certainly my surroundings in terms of built environment and the experience of walking through different space.
My interest in lines and forms also raised the question of presence and absence/ real and unreal. The composition of the photograph is not suggesting much about the built environment but highlighting the construction of certain geometric forms and tonal variations. The importance of the empty space in the overall image gives space to the lines in the photographs to extend and move beyond there compositional frame and thus responsive drawing coming in.
Artist: Janarthan Rudramoorthy
Artwork: Nest and other paintings
My work: As I was tracing my own self during the process I got into this thought to project this type of an art which forms a nest. Usually we see the nest to be a place of stay for the birds but to view it in a different angle I compare it to a human body. So I too have made this work by making layers which gives a human form. I like to innovative the present things around me by viewing it in my own way.
Artist: Roshan Chhabria
About me: I find inspiration in candid situations and day-to-day life, which includes my surroundings and human relations. I recently did a solo show at Mascara Gallery (10 October to 9 November 2013).
My work: In this exhibition I use ready-made objects and ready-made found footage (advertisements). This footage is about tele marketing of brands. I find humor in the way they translate the language from English to the vernacular language. In the same way the door-to-door salesman is a character I find interesting and his job of going from home to home demonstrating the use and function of his products in order to make a sale is something I find similar to the delivery of my work of art (product) to the exhibition space at Khoj. It is part of the salesman’s job description to take the product to the venue and to set it up ready for use.
Negotiating the medium:
Sanket: For me medium, content and image are equally important. But by saying so, one can easily trace that content and the representation of image has not changed much, as much as medium has throughout the history. Today’s definition of ART is not limited to aesthetics of beauty and pure-creation. The continuous advancements in various fields and extensive use of technologies, and acceptance of art in its varied forms, is encouraging me to explore and express my thoughts and ideas without letting medium become a barrier. Ideas are my strength and I try to explore them thoroughly. With freedom comes responsibility, hence I try to constantly re-invent myself with the medium and try to find new possibilities within it.
Janarthan: I choose my medium according to my own imagination.
Parul: I am interested in the visual experience of different space, leaving behind the understanding and perception of those spaces and thus wanting the viewer to get involve with my work experientially and not intellectually. My medium is line and is not a conscious decision but the realisation. The realisation came when I started to find meaning in this medium, but I am not sticking to this medium alone as it has the tendency to create forms and movements.
Roshan: I approach the idea through different mediums in order to understand which medium it is that I want to work in. In the process the research that develops becomes part of the work along with all the mediums that I have used. And so it is very consciously that I decide the medium.
How was your experience of PEERS Share?
Sanket: As a recent graduate from a college which is still in its developing years (South Gujarat University, Fine Arts, Surat), being able to be a part of Khoj was an important moment for me. Vivid types of approaches are being practiced by artists today and are practically impossible to know them all. Hence the urgency to interact and share them becomes really important in order to relate one’s own practice at a larger level. Peers Share was a platform for upcoming practitioners like me, where such interactions were possible.
Janarthan: It was my first time in my life I’ve had a group discussion. And I was very impressed in the way others expressed their thoughts. It was a great experience.
Parul: Seeing the presentation of Peers and understanding there process was one of the learning experiences because such interactions usually don’t take place. The critical feedback from other peers and mentors helped me reflect on my practice from others perspective.
Roshan: It is difficult to list what I have learnt from my experience at Khoj, but I have learnt a lot just like I learn from every place I go.
Mentions
