"Moving Matter" a group show in various mediums at Blueprint 12, C-66, Anand Niketan > 10am-7pm on 1st-5th September 2012

Time : 10:00 am - 7:00 pm

Entry : Free

Place : Blueprint 12, C-66, Anand Niketan, New Delhi
Venue Info : Anand Niketan Map | Nearest Metro Stations - 'AIIMS(Yellow Line)'  &  'Dhuala Kuan(Orange Line)'

Event Details : Blueprint 12, a new art venture by Mandira Lamba and Ridhi Bhalla, presents Moving Matter, a group show curated by Deeksha Nath that will showcase works in various mediums from installation, video, photography, textile, canvas, paper and sculpture.
The artists in the show are Arun Kumar HG, Lavanya Mani, Masooma Syed, Sandip Pisalkar, Martand Khosla, Akash Nihalani, Sukanya Ghosh and Amina Ahmed.
Says curator Deeksha Nath: “In the past few decades there was an increasing application of a ‘non-commercial’ visual language (video, installation, performance) to conceptually address larger socio-political concerns, such as migration and displacement, economic liberalization and exploitation of labour and small merchants, urban expansion and environmental abuse, to mention a few. These concerns are still present but alongside there is a resurgence of medium and material exploration. I have several ideas why this may be – the fall of the market, the lack of a developing contemporary discourse, the latter would certainly affect pedagogy – but this exhibition is not to propose the reasons why but to examine this exciting turn and mark its moment.”
The launch of a new gallery provides the perfect opportunity for such a curatorial challenge. The artists in the exhibition are young and/ or little known. The Indian art market is saturated with a repetition of established artists. While they mark the coming of age of contemporary Indian art, it is the newer generation of artists who provide the most discursive opportunities as they point to current and future considerations.
For instance, Pakistani artist Masooma Syed, who now lives in Delhi, has made an installation of animal forms with deer and cats made out of human hair! She says: “It’s a story of my times, a place where flowers are made of silver and cats and deer of human hair, where bird perches on the tip of a knife and drinks poison, where landscape comes on your figure, where the most precious jewel is the necklace of human nails and where old monks and red chillies are man’s best friend.”
Born in East Africa and New York Based Amina Amhed work is based on the concept of repetition, both intended and inadvertent. Markings are often used until exhausted only to lead to the realization that this journey is only just beginning. Words or sound is similarly used, the sound of calling, the way one calls to one’s mother or father; repeated over and over again. This repetition continues until the beloved face is revealed.”
In one of her a text-based wall mounted print titled Pukaar: Pillar to Post (National Anthems) is a work that has been a subject of discussion and collection for the artist for many years. “I am fascinated by the way that all national anthems sound so similar, that the words just become a drone. The way they become the early morning hymns before school, with this memory the face and body changes when the familiar sound is sung. In these anthems we hear the words of pride, of love and of war; of strength and of courage and honor; of art and of beauty; of homeland; of belonging and of exile.  National Anthems seem always to be filled with a sense of longing. Putting the anthems together in a repeated pattern is one way to present, how in our yearning we all call out.”
Ahmed’s second work in ink and pigment is titled It looks a bit like a graph said allia. “This work began as a work about water, until my daughter walked in and looked at it and said ‘it looks a bit like a graph’. I stopped, looked at ‘it’ again and just stopped. Sometimes it just is what it is.”  
Baroda-based Sandip Pisalkar has created a 400 kilogram heavy installation which will run on the notion of 'body modification' and 'identification', to depict social behavioural patterns. “The design element inherent in it, for example tattoos, ranges from the ancient to contemporary usage either to bring out the notion of metaphor or to gauge the change in usage of the same material if applied in different space and time or juxtaposed with other material.”
Delhi-based Arun Kumar HG, makes an installation out of sugar cubes and white wax titled Home Sweet Home. “This work is about our nature versus greed, and the  material employed in making of this work can evoke our emotions more than words.”
Another New York based artist Akash Nihalani has made digital prints titled Inside Out (Bicyclist) and Platforms (Temple). “My street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. I selectively place these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself.  For however briefly, I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are used to seeing, and in turn, momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives. We all need the opportunity to see the city more playfully, as a world dominated by the interplay of very basic colour and shape. I try to create a new space within the existing space of our everyday world for people to enter freely, and unexpectedly ‘disconnect’ from their reality. I’m not trying to push a certain highbrow logic or philosophy or purposefully communicate through the esoteric medium of art. I work instinctively, trying to follow my gut about the sensation of colour and space, and have fun doing it. People need to understand that how it is isn’t how it has to be. My work is created in reaction to what we readily encounter in our lives, sidewalks and doorways, buildings and bricks. I’m just connecting the dots differently to make my own picture. Other’s need to see that they can create too, connecting their own dots, in their own places.”
Other artists in the show too have created works in varied materials and metaphors.

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