Art that mirrors life
Mona
It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors, wrote Oscar Wilde. While one wouldn’t argue that, the annual art exhibition by Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi (CLKA) sure is a reflection of the time and society we are living in too.
Some 141 works of art – painting, sculptures, installations – rich in their visual appeal as well as emotive – dot the gallery of Punjab Arts Council-16. Monochrome to motley, the award-winning section echoes modern life with isolation, and is also a juxtaposition of many ideas and many moods along with the fleeting desire to treasure tradition for the themes.
‘Me Too’ to social media to consumerist culture register their presence through art. It’s hard not to get awed by installation Walking Emotions-I — a Ganesha flanked by hanging keys, a telephone receiver with human faces over the base. Then there is a My Dream House in Smart City’ a stone sculpture with two birds perched atop questioning the conscious if the so-called development is actually so.
A Himachali wedding or a traditional fair, the urge to hold on to fast-losing culture or to capture the vibrancy at its best, is another thread that runs in.
If one can stare, spot or construe paintings imbibing all the beauty and themes, it’s hard to miss the installations that beg to be explored. Like Gurjeet Singh’s Album. With an instruction to wear gloves before one gives in to turn the colourful faces that adorn this diary; one cannot but peep though the box that takes one on a kaleidoscope of figurines and emotions.
Students get a corner of their own, and deservingly so. Anukriti’s Garnered Joys, a rather gray but striking composition on canvas to very vibrant Spiti by Pradeep Singh, nature, nurture stand side by side on the wall.
CLKA is honouring two artists from Chandigarh –Prabhinder Lall and Mohinder Tuli – for their contribution to the field of art and its promotion this year. “The idea is to connect people to art with this exhibition, an aim we are continuously striving for,” says Bheem Malhotra, chairman, CLKA.
On till March 28
mona@tribunemail.com
