LEAD ESSAYS
24 Shaheen Merali assesses the issues involved in translating cultures and trafficking images between ‘home’ and ‘diasporic’ communities in a globalised world.
30 Identity, internationalisation and the vagaries of power are just some of the issues Sharmistha Ray touches upon as she takes us through the work of a few exciting South Asian artists of the diaspora.
LEAD FEATURE
35 Deirdre King argues that it is time to abandon conventional ways of classifying diaspora art.
LEAD PROFILES
38 America-based Rina Banerjee’s gaily glittering installations are stuffed with delicious references to fairytales and myths, discloses Laura Steward. Deeksha Nath reads her own tales into Banerjee’s first solo in India.
42 A Singaporean artist of Indian origin, Simryn Gill uses termite mounds, seeds, toys and strangely glinting cutlery in her installations that address the complexity of cultural transactions. Gary Carsley is mesmerized.
45 As the founder of a ‘saucy’ society of artists in New York City and an artist in her own right, the twists and turns of Jaishri Abichandani’s aesthetic career are worth following, says Tom Finkelpearl.
48 Kristy Phillips applauds the significant contribution that the South Asian Visual Arts Centre has made to Canada’s art scene.
LEAD PROFILE/REVIEW
50 Green Cardamom has spiced up London’s repertoire of art shows since 2004; Deirdre King tells us how as she samples their latest fare.
LEAD INTERVIEWS
52 Born to Indian and Welsh parents, filmmaker Alia Syed draws on a rich narrative tradition in her fable-inspired work. She talks to Sonal Shah about time, myth and memories.
54 The Singh Twins talk to Abhay Sardesai about multiple identities and plural cultural resources.
LETTER FROM PAKISTAN
56 Pakistani art is subject to a paradoxical phenomenon – while artists who are based at ‘home’ are influenced by Western trends, those living abroad play up their Eastern origins. Quddus Mirza tackles the conundrum.
LEAD REVIEWS
72 Yamini Nayar and Sheela Gowda speak to a variety of spaces in a show in New York. Abhay Sardesai lends an ear.
74 Zehra Jumabhoy darts Back, Forth and Round About as she dissects a show of diaspora art.
SPECIAL REPORT
75 The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT) has spiritedly fought against acts of social and political injustice for the last twenty years. Meera Menezes visits a show commemorating its major ventures.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS
78 The Serpentine’s first survey of Indian art left much to be desired, Deirdre King laments.
80 T.V. Santhosh’s paintings are saturated with depictions of violence in a mediacontrolled world. Emilia Terracciano engages with them.
REVIEWS
81 Do you SUSPECT that art and commerce have been too closely allied over the last two years? Shanay Jhaveri thinks so too.
82 How do artists relate to Ahmedabad as a city? Sandhya Bordewekar finds out.
84 Structures of authority and how they discipline the body are explored in Subba Ghosh’s State of Mind. Shukla Sawant elaborates.
86 Systems of knowledge and discourses of science come under Abhishek Hazra’s analytic gaze; Marta Jakimowicz is kept occupied investigating the resulting artworks.
87 48°C brought to public attention heated debates about art, ecology, the environment and society, says Preeti Bahadur Ramaswami.
90 Meera Menezes takes a walk through Anjum Singh’s cleverly fashioned jungle of industrial waste.
91 New York-based Kanishka Raja and Rotterdam-based Aji V. N. both play games with Western art history in their paintings, but here their similarity ends, states Avni Doshi.
92 L. N. Tallur’s mechanical installations critique nationalism, capitalism and greed; Tasneem Zakaria Mehta is fascinated by their macabre machinations.
94 Anirudh Chari finds that Analytical Engine chugs along at a slow pace.
95 Trisha Gupta learns how All is Fair in Magic White at Archana Hande’s latest solo in New Delhi.
96 Prithpal Singh Ladi’s first solo after a hiatus of eight years has a logic that impresses Gitanjali Dang.
98 Deeksha Nath gives her sincere opinion on Hema Upadhyay’s latest role-playing extravaganza.
100 Beth Citron scrutinizes Reena Saini Kallat’s Silt of Seasons carefully.
102 Narendra Yadav’s Pavlov’s God could have had some better tricks up its sleeve, thinks Beth Citron.
RECOLLECTION
101 P. Mansaram provides a personal snapshot of the Indian art scene in New York of the ’60s and the ’70s.
106 LISTINGS