From the ‘Concerns’ Desk ... February 2010

A Glimpse into the Artist’s soul

The thought process that takes place in the mind of an artist is always an intriguing factor. What all go into the making of a work of art ?  How does the artist approach the essential questions related to identity, image making, interpretation and many others ?

In this issue, we present the musings of four artists. Apart from ‘My Work,’ the regular column in which we have in this issue Baiju Parthan discussing about his work, ‘Arpeggio for Abbe Faria.’ We also present Waswo X Waswo, the American artist based in India, Mequitta Ahuja, the American artist of Afro-Indian origins and Umesh Unni, a Hyderabad-based young artist.  

Artist residencies are playing an increasingly important role in today’s art world. In our cover story in this issue, John Xaviers is featuring the KHOJ Residency network spread all over the country and the role that residencies play.

In our October – December, 2009 issue, we had published the first part of the interview of art historian R.Siva Kumar, done by Parvez Kabir. The second part of the interview appears in this issue.  

The questions raised by the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association more than 20 years ago have started to receive a renewed interest in the recent years. Agastya Thapa reports on ‘Questions & Dialogues: A Radical Manifesto,’ a seminar around the practice of K.P.Krishnakumar and the Kerala Radical Group, that was organised by the Office of Contemporary Art, Norwary and CoLab Art & Architecture at the School of Art & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi.

In ‘Spring Board,’ we have Tather Fathima Daryani, the young student at M.S.University, Baroda, hailing from Pakistan. Then we have Maya Kovskaya writing about the show, ‘Living Off the Grid,’ curated by Meera Menezes, Natasha Ginwala writing on ‘Resemble Reassemble,’ the show of artists from Pakistan curated by Rashid Rana, Rikimi Madhukaillya reviewing the recent solo of Ashim Purkayastha, Dr. Vaishali Sharma reviewing ‘The Tradition of the New,’ curated by Taiwanese curator Andre Lee, at Sakshi Gallery and R.Dhanya writing on Surekha’s recent show at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore.

The Book Review presents a biography of Raja Ravi Varma, written by the Mumbai-based art writer Deepanjana Pal. And in Offbeat, we have a Dance Fair, conducted in Bangalore.

Besides, we have all the regular columns and news stories as well.

Wishing you all a great summer ahead, and wishing that may you be surrounded by great art all through that summer,

Team Art Concerns