Steel roses

Eighteen artists from all over the country have been brought together for Gandhara art gallery’s current exhibition in the Nandalal Bose hall of ICCR. In keeping with its title Beyond Objecthood, the works are mostly non-figurative. There are some that are representative yet could create the impression of not being so. Interestingly, it features preparatory drawings, Tapati Chowdhury’s life-size sketch of the reclining chair that integrates the “phantoms” of other related pieces of furniture as well, being the most interesting of the lot. The stark lines stand out against the backdrop of printed textile, which also provides a contrast for a piece of furniture painted a ghostly white.

Adip Dutta toys with the labyrinthine form of the sweet jalebi. He has caught it on video while being fried, and the same tortuous form is reflected in the smart shapes he has created in contrasting black and shining steel wool. Anjum Singh presents a “bouquet” of steel cones painted red inside. These could also represent air horns that blare only in our imagination.

The drawings and paintings, too, suggest real objects, not with certainty though. Manisha Parekh’s graphite drawings tantalisingly allude to botanical drawings and allow much leeway for our imagination. Akhilesh’s canvas in subtle shades of mauve and orange is quite stimulating. Jayashree Chakravarty’s shoal of fish could be swimming in and out from the past to the present and from our collective memories and dreams to the concrete reality of fossils.

German design is famous for its precision and ability to communicate effortlessly, its bleakness notwithstanding. The format of the exhibition, Communication Design in Germany, now on at the Seagull Arts & Media Resource Centre in Bhowanipore is itself an object lesson on how to package a travelling exhibition. The panels that open out like screens resemble fans, which, when folded, form suitcases that are not too difficult to handle. It is obvious that the show is much travelled — the panels look a little shop-soiled but that does not detract from the innovative way it has been conceived and presented. The brochure on the exhibition presented jointly by Goethe-Institut and German Design Council resembles Joseph’s coat of many colours, and, as expected, provides a wealth of information.

The exhibition is divided under five heads — corporate design, digital media, graphic design, signage and typography — and five experts were asked to chose their favourite designers and projects. The show highlights the interdependence of these disciplines.

The show is not meant to be a retrospective and it does provide glimpses of trends in this century. Viewers may find the section on digital media interesting. Bombarded as we are day in and day out by images from TV and the Internet, here we get to know the power of moving images and web design. In spite of their ubiquity they will never displace the printed word.


Soumitra Das, The Telegraph