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Slaves of Freedom
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Published by Kolkata Newsline on 2007-08-22
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Slaves of Freedom
40 contemporary Indian artists get together on the occasion of India’s 60th year of Independence. Their canvas is not always celebratory in spirit
Pragya Paramita
The flavour of India’s 60th Independence has reached the art galleries in Kolkata with many vying with each other to exhibit the artist’s interpretation of India’s freedom.
It is not always a celebratory canvas that brings alive the Partition and its horrors or portrayals of a value system gone wrong in post-independent India. At Aakriti Art Gallery, remembering the different moods of Independence is an exhibition showcasing the works of 40 modern Indian artists.
Titled, ‘Freedom: What it means to me’, the exhibition has works of artists like Birendra Pani, Barun Chowdhury, Siddhartha Ghosh, Habibur Rahman, Janak Jhankar Narzary and Mahjabin I Mazumdar. Freedom, as most have depicted, may have been hard- earned, but the values it brought about seems to have got diluted in the quest for modernity. Be it in the interpretations of Mahjabin I Mazumdar’s Fear Within, which depicts a human figure with a gun inside the body signifying the internalising of our fears, or Atin Basak’s Marooned depicting the agony of people marooned, both physically and metaphorically.
The contrast in situations is best understood through Barun Chowdhury’s two works, one showing the dual emotions witnessed during the Partition while the other shows the artist’s impression of modern India. The latter, titled Post Independence Journal, shows the disfiguration of a human body with huts burning in the distance, flanked by chessboards with chairs (depicting power) and figurines of gods (depicting the politicisation of religion) instead of pawns. Chowdhury’s Its Celebration Time shows Picasso’s influence with glimpses of Guernica amidst the human drama that is played out on the canvas. In between the different shades of red, there is a train with multitude of people and two giant elephants passing wind. While humanity had to undergo the trauma of a Partition, the two nations depicted by the elephants turned their backs on them. It is a painting that brings out the pathos and the passion experienced by those who were the real sufferers of India’s Independence.
Freedom in 2007, much of the exhibition puts across, has become a word that one enjoys espousing, but the reality introduced on the canvas balances between the tragic fallout and the jingoistic upheaval. It would seem that we are slaves of our own fears and our demands, and India’s journey into self-discovery and finding the real meaning of freedom, still an ongoing process. Birendra Pani’s vision of modern India in the Game of Fundamentalist shows the incongruity. While Swadhinta as a concept may define the country, the reality bounds us.
Yet, not all the works are bleak representations. Siddhartha Ghosh’s My Experiments With Truth is a pointed interpretation of Gandhi’s work, which shows Gandhi seeking truth through a telescope. Even Kanchan Dasgupta’s Now On He Wants To Lead His Life As He Pleases is a hopeful rendition of what a free country can do for its citizens — letting them live their lives without any fear.
The exhibition is on at the Aakriti Art Gallery at Hungerford Street till today 3-7 pm
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=252117
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