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‘Objective Voice,’ solo show by George Martin P.J.
at Vadehra Gallery

‘Objective Voice,’ solo show by George Martin P.J. opens at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi on October 1, 2009.
  
A sculptor by training, Martin completed his art education from Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata and College of Fine Arts, Thiruvanthapuram before moving to Delhi. This exhibition brings together his drawings on paper and a collection of seven installations comprising of sculpture works, neon and light emitting diodes.

Martin has always ventured towards new mediums and possibilities. This body of work aims at deciphering certain assumptions about the visual language that is executed and ameliorated constantly by the artist.  The assemblages look back at a reservoir of memories and images. Working with materials like vinyl, fiberglass, light, silicon and aluminum, Martin is interested in creating visual poetry. The images or forms that construe each works are quotidian in nature; like the airplane, the skull or the chicken. All of these are visual phrases feed the optic sphere of knowledge regularly in the media or otherwise. George Martin maneuvers the same images to stimulate new expressions and evoke a magical reality.

The new works are titled with strong perceptivity as ‘Crude sanctum,’ ‘Urgency of the Present/ the Redemption of the Past,’ ‘ Forgone Conclusion or Laugh & Re-memorization,’ all of which suggest a palingenesis of ideas that have coagulated to raise each work. They display an organic process of artistic development which can be mapped thus, by following the drawings and installations.

The work ‘Crude sanctum,’ exhibits a fiber-cast replica of Joseph Beuys performing in his work ‘I Like America and America Likes Me,’ in 1974. A round mirror framed with fiber-cast skulls and a text crafted from neon lights stand as a statement by itself for the work. Beuys insisted on a recognition of the whole, not just those aspects of the whole which were capable of giving pleasure and instant gratification, keeping this in mind the usage of Beuys’ image in the work utters related yet different set of meaning for the audience.

The show will continue until October 29 at Vadehra Art Gallery, D 178 Okhla Industrial Area, Phase 1, New Delhi.  A discussion and slide show presentation by the artist will be held on October 22, 5 pm at the Reading Room, D 42, Defence Colony, New Delhi 110024.

- From A Correspondent.