24 LEAD ESSAY
Why do critics and artists treat theorist Walter Benjamin’s notion of the ‘aura’ as gospel? Why do politically-minded artists believe that they can change the world
through art? GIRISH SHAHANE tells us where they are going wrong.
32 LEAD FEATURE
Baroda’s artists have politics on their minds and in their works, says SANDHYA BORDEWEKAR.
PROFILES
36 ARSHIYA LOKHANDWALA feels that Tejal Shah's 'trans-' sexual photographs,videos
and performances should be seen as part of the artist’s protest against discrimination of all kinds.
40 GEETA KAPUR holds forth on the political art of Tushar Joag.
46 Ravi Agarwal’s concern for the environment and civil rights is evident in his photographs, performances and community-centred projects, maintains MEERA MENEZES.
SPECIAL REPORT
50 LATIKA GUPTA attends a long-awaited seminar on the Kerala Radicals and is excited by the questions it raises.
LETTER FROM PAKISTAN
52 QUDDUS MIRZA gives a round-up of political art in his country.
INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS
66 PETER FELCH cheers as contemporary Indian art in the form of Chalo! India acquires a whole host of new admirers in Vienna.
68 The Raqs Media Collective broods about time, travel and the hidden costs of globalisation at a new show in London, says MURTAZA VALI.
71 Ranjani Shettar’s swirling golden-brown sculptures have SONAL SHAH gleefully
sporting with shadows in a New York gallery.
74 Nasreen Mohamedi’s black-and-white drawings, minimalistic photographs andenigmatically spare canvases are all given an airing at a recent retrospective;EMILIA TERRACCIANO drops by.
76 Cyprien Gaillard and Shilpa Gupta are both Younger Than Jesus; MEENAKSHI
THIRUKODE rejoices that she is too.
78 INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Contemporary Chinese art’s politically sensitive poster boy, Ai Wei Wei, has been given a rough ride by government authorities; ANIRUDH CHARI is not surprised.
REVIEWS
79 Ashim Purkayastha’s new works address injustice in the North-East, reports LATIKA GUPTA.80 Freedom might be notional, but good art isn’t. ANIRUDH CHARI celebrates the fact that we get a good dose of the latter at Experimenter Gallery’s group show.
82 Dark narratives and colourful fashion figure in Bharat Sikka’s absorbing
photographs, observes PRIYA PALL.
83 What’s so marvellous about reality? PRIYA PALL finds out at Gallery Espace’s vast exhibition of mysterious videos and myth-inspired installations.
84 Seher Shah’s dense photomontages borrow from architecture, religion and
politics, notes MEERA MENEZES.
86 Sumedh Rajendran’s Mumbai solo plays host to a steely array of dismantled dogs
and disembowelled humans, discovers AVNI DOSHI.
87 AVNI DOSHI finds herself thinking about the various ways in which tradition creeps up on modernity at Sakshi Gallery’s exhibition of Asian art.
88 SHILADITYA SARKAR is unreservedly captivated by Kabir Mohanty’s sound and
video installations that discuss multiculturalism and ‘maya’ in the metropolis.
90 Srinivasa Prasad’s gigantic bamboo sculptures simulating birds’ nests make
MARTA JAKIMOWICZ sorry that the show has to end.
91 Unsettling wafts of sandalwood soap greet MARTA JAKIMOWICZ at Krishnaraj
Chonat’s stunningly strange solo.
COGITATION
92 GIEVE PATEL probes the significance behind the tangled bottle-green foliage,
eerily winkling lights and menacing beasts in Kerala-based Ratheesh T.’s disturbing, detail-rich canvases.
98 LISTINGS