If you are a cynic who feels that Mahatma Gandhi has gone out of fashion, or that his bespectacled, simpleton imagery fails to inspire any more, maybe it’s time to look at contemporary art. At the India Art Fair 2013, one could find the Mahatma reinterpreted by several artists – in minimal portraiture to kitschy pop, on shutter art to traditional canvases.
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At London’s Scream Gallery, for instance, the work done in mixed media on vintage metal sign is titled Triple Gandhi on Pepsi. This is Thai artist Pakpoom Silaphan’s satirical take on the dehumanising aspect of capitalism. And while the same booth also had other popular icons like Spanish artist Salvador Dali and Mexican diva Frieda Kahlo as part of the same series poking fun at the intertwining relationship between art and commerce, it is the Gandhi work which has shutterbugs clicking away.
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As young children squealed and got themselves photographed against Silaphan’s work, it was a sombre mood that prevailed outside Vadehra Art Gallery booth where Mumbai-based Atul Dodiya’s mechanised shutter work, created as a tribute to Delhi’s Nirbhaya, had a helpless Gandhi being a mere spectator to the crime that took place in Delhi in December 2012. The shutter, on which Gandhi is painted, lifts to reveal a crying eye, while Dodiya’s girl is surrounded by sharks and the date of her death – 29/12/2012 – boldly stands out at the bottom of the work.
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NGMA director Rajeev Lochan is one of the onlookers and he says: “Gandhi will always remain an icon. Even now, artists find they can tell their stories through Gandhi.”
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A few feet away stands Ramesh Sharma, father of two teenagers, who is visiting the fair for the first time. “I never expected to see art based on this horrific crime here. But now I know that artists can think beyond what we can imagine and what better way to educate our children about the ways of the world.”
It is Hardik Dikshit’s monumental installation titled Lest We Forget Those who Matter – a fibre sculpture of Gandhi standing atop a huge mountain of frozen rock salt – that is truly intriguing. The girl at the gallery booth of Dhoomimal dishes out a tiny medicine bottle filled with rock salt and the artist’s visiting card printed with a Re 500 note on its back and engages the onlookers in a casual chit chat about the work. Soon, it becomes obvious that the unidentifiable statue, whose identity is revealed only with the walking stick and the trademark shawl, is a symbolic interpretation of the eroding values from our contemporary lives which is ruled by commerce.
Gandhi and his role in history continues to excite artists, and so is evident from Jitish Kallat’s amazingly understated light-projection work titled Covering Letter at Nature Morte booth. Viewers have to walk through a dark room illuminated only by a curtain of light on which is inscribed a historic letter written by Gandhi to Hitler in 1939, urging him to reconsider his violent means.
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In some works, Gandhi is not alone. At Volte Gallery, he shares space with Jawaharlal Nehru in an oil and acrylic work by K K Raghava titled Biting The Green Apple. While on the subject, one could see that all the works portraying Gandhi are not pessimistic. At Gallerie Nvya booth, Viveek Sharma’s photo-realistic canvas of a smiling Gandhi accepting the salute of a dozen soldiers put a smile on everyone’s faces.
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In whatever way he is portrayed, that’s what Gandhi brings to us – optimism for a better future.
Poonam Goel is a freelance journalist and has covered the arts for over 15 years. She contributes on visual arts for various newspapers, magazines and online media. A former journalist with Hindustan Times, she was designated with the role of principal correspondent, chief sub-editor as well as creative director of a women’s magazine. She was the arts editor of Hindustan Times during her last two years at the newspaper. She was selected by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the Chevening Scholarship for print journalists to study at the University of Westminster, London. During her short stint there, she got an opportunity to work with The Times, London. You can mail her at poonamgoel2410@gmail.com
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