Curator Nilesh Kinkale defines human experiences through senses, one of which resides in the mouth (tongue with saliva). It is an instinct and mental response that when we want to stick or lubricate naturally, we brush it with spittle. A substantial precedent is the affixing of stamps on postcards with saliva. A mark of self, sent to the recipient miles away. Screens though have now proclaimed “थुक लगाना मना है.”! Contemporaneously, this Hindi idiom means that people are outsmarting through
Curator Nilesh Kinkale defines human experiences through senses, one of which resides in the mouth (tongue with saliva). It is an instinct and mental response that when we want to stick or lubricate naturally, we brush it with spittle. A substantial precedent is the affixing of stamps on postcards with saliva. A mark of self, sent to the recipient miles away. Screens though have now proclaimed “थुक लगाना मना है.”! Contemporaneously, this Hindi idiom means that people are outsmarting through
The variety of the exhibition finds expression through the use of Post Stamps cut to fit size 3 x 2.5 inches, merging the school of thought, from “minimalism” to “postmodernism”, in confrontation with each other. The color excluded, the exhibition seeks to contrast the differences in personality and artistic direction of the Two Hundred Twenty Five artists around the world skill fully installed along with envelops through which the artist posted their works. At times of NFT and other new age art it feels refreshing to experience an old classical approach by the curator of the show, whereas the intimate gallery is nestled in an old colonial mansion in Flora Fountain.
Drawing is the starting point for most of Jogen Chowdhury’s work from the rendering of image to a more intuitive, spontaneous approach his figures overlap one another to form a mosaic with an underlying message. Onkar Kshirsagar’s shapes are related to one another by tensions and fibers sometimes flowering into small delicate shapes. The thin glazes have a melting lyricism that is sophisticated and elegant, nowhere jarring and equally not hackneyed. The distinctive feature of Apurba Nandi seems to be the empathy it shares with his subjects caught in the common human predicament. Social issues finds a place in his work, but the overall treatment is subtle and restrained, even though pointed examining the sensual and sensory experience.
Antonia Bounchy, Nilesh Shilkar and Boryana Petkova Sofia have experimented with the visual capabilities of text working with words to devise textual configurations, semiotic imagery, and visual poetry. The iconography of woman is an important feature in works of Mithali Das and Kapil Alaskar their images are not devoid of context. The status of women in society and nuances find reflection in their work set in kinky dream like atmosphere. The highly finished smooth surfaces of Sudharak Olwe’s works are reminiscent of photography where the back and side lights are used to pick out or emphasise the plasticity of objects with naïve vision.
Saju Kunhan and Anjana Mehra sequence of juxtaposing nature in urban architecture which follow a narrative, linear in the way it reads but elastic in the way that it enables us to comprehend and examine their subject. A radical denial of belonging to any style, rejection of the modernistic traditions of painting and the continued critical discussion characterize the works of Prashant Salvi. Turning thing upside-down, inverting them, mixing them up and thus destroying conventions, this has almost become a trademark. The contribution Sadanand Shirke made to assemblage, of paper strip constructions is significant. The basis for all his activities and ways of working is his outlook that exploded conventional systems of thought and was essentially visionary.
Tathi Premchand’s work over the years evolved a personal idiom of undulating lines and contortions on the paper. Her work involves and transports the spectator into a world of ceaseless movement. Rajesh Salgaonkar, Sagar Kamble works are not melancholy in nature; however they transport us to a world of fable and folklore of blue eyed goddess reclining odalisques and bizarre hybrid beasts. S.G. Vasudev and Jatin Das with their free and vigorous ink-works unprecedented in time continue to fascinate the viewer. It has been the practice of their work which establishes them as avant-garde artist, resolved to re-think the demands of their art and to address them in an entirely new way.
Madhao Imartey and Dilip Ranade create a luminal zone between the real and the imaginary, between the viewer and the image. Whereas abstraction is often associated with the effacement of metaphor and the distillation of essence from appearance, the result, is an ambiguity which ensures a layering of metaphor: the image becomes capable of many competing evocations. Shivani Dubey plays with forms in an irreverent manner yet the whole composition has a sublime effect. The forms remain centered even as the cosmos goes through the motions of fusion and fission in the periphery. In Ratnadeep Adivrekar’s view time and space are not finite, although in human reckoning time is divided into moments, just as space is divided into points. He is concerned to show that the external is immanent in the temporal process and yet transcends it.
( Interactive art थूक लगाना मना है by Nilesh Kinkale )
This well-documented and unusual exhibition includes an archival display of Postage Stamps materials in form of drawing, painting, text-art, two dimensional sculpture, and photograph, specially produced by artist from India and across the world for this project. Nilesh Kinkale considers all these curatorial elements, along with his multi-media work, as integral constructs of this project.
Abhijeet Gondkar
(Abhijeet Gondkar is an independent writer and curator based in Mumbai.)
👇Miniature Post Tickets – Art show Until 20th May 2023
Gallery Trimmings: 3pm to 7pm / Sunday Closed.
Nippon Gallery 30/32, 2nd Floor, Deval Chambers, Nana Bhai Lane, Flora Fountain, Fort, Mumbai – 400 001
