Artist Abhishek Chaudhary

Abhishek Chaudhary is an experimental, mixed media and collage artist based in New Delhi and he is but a nasty modem router teething on glorified images from the past to shake the present. His work explores the digital world, Internet aesthetics, gender, popular culture and re-contextualizing classical works of art/popular cultural references. His voice is witty, observant and is not scared to be provocative. There is always constant questioning, negotiation and understanding of our world right now.

Abhishek's work was recently featured alongwith other experimental artists at Galleries Lafayette, Paris and is also a part of the Wrong Digital Art Biennale 2013. More of his work, interests and interactions happen on his Tumblr, www.rangeenmakhee.tumblr.com.

Drop by.

Jitish Kallat | The Hour of the Day of the month of the Season

Anish Kapoor in Berlin

Kapoor in Berlin is the first comprehensive exhibition of Anish Kapoor in Berlin. The Indian-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor is known for his spectacular sculptures and installations, such as the Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago. For his exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau he uses the whole ground floor of the building, including the atrium. In this video, Anish Kapoor talks about the concept of the show and specific works, such as the huge kinetic installation in the atrium of the Martin-Gropius-Bau. Video by Frantisek Zachoval.

Artist Sarnath Banerjee | Berlin series

Sarnath Banerjee from India paints a very different picture of Berlin for his readers back home. He produces comic strips on life in the German capital for publication in an Indian daily. To him, Berlin is a fascinating metropolis full of contradictions. His intriguing graphic novels tell the story.

Jitish Kallat | Circa

In this video Asialink talk with Jitish Kallat and take a look at his exhibition Circa at The Ian Potter Museum of Art.

"Jitish Kallat: Circa" is Kallat's first solo exhibition in an Australian museum. Following the reflective nature of his recent projects, this exhibition is conceived as an evolving narrative; an experiment of multiple interventions across several spaces within the Ian Potter Museum of Art. During the course of six months from October 2012 to April 2013, some works will appear for a few days, while others will remain on display until the end of the exhibition. Still others await conception when the departure of interventions makes space for them as part of an evolving entry and exit of ideas.

Presented in partnership with Utopia@Asialink. Supported by Australia India Institute, the Keir Foundation and Melbourne Festival.

The exhibition runs from Saturday 13 Oct 2012 to Sunday 7 Apr 2013.

Tentative Collective | Karachi

The 'Tentative Collective' is a nomadic collective of people who share resources to create critical works of art in public places. These works of art aim to excite the public imagination and create new spaces for social engagement. Our projects strive to be collaborative, site sensitive, and inclusive to different strata of society. We value free public space, engage in the reclaiming of what should be collective property, and strive to make something special out of makeshift, tentative and mundane opportunities in everyday life.

Based in Karachi, Pakistan and Albany, New York, the 'Tentative Collective' wants to create conceptually rich experiences to engage with and explore the cities we inhabit.

New leaders can propose and coordinate projects, using the collective as a support network that can be mobilized to get projects executed quickly. All works made as part of the collective will be co-owned by the project leader and the collective. In this way the group will be flexible and open to new ideas and new members to promote an infectious creativity that can cross boundaries.

More Info on: http://tentativecollective.com/

Graphic Novelist | Amruta Patil

Luminous Matter | at Studio X (Jan 25th, 2013)

Dystopia and Urban Imagination  (21st to 25th January 2013), Studio X, Bombay.

Luminous Matter is stunning steampunk stop motion in which two species of luminescent insectoid creatures must find each other and in a dark dystopian world. They scuttle around in the mechanical darkness bearing a unique luminous character that unites them and will enable them to evolve.

“Science Fiction film has always presented us with extraordinary images of our living environments whether traveling to the past, present or future. In this series of film screenings we explore the dialectic between contemporary urbanity and the seemingly disparate or frighteningly real images that these films present in terms of their conceptual representation of urban life. On the last day, there will be a film screening of Luminous Matter along with an interactive session discussing the intersections between the science fiction film genre and the urban condition.”

Cheers 

Andrew. 

andrew@compositus.in

                                          A still from Luminous Matter.

InfluencerCon | Bombay Chapter

Influencer Conference London 2011 from We Are Co on Vimeo.

Mumbai, India September 7, 2012 – The 2012 Influencer Conference (‘InfluencerCon’) will be held between 3–5 October simultaneously in New York City, London, Berlin, Mumbai, Sao Paulo and here in Mumbai at Studio X Mumbai 

InfluencerCon is the first of its kind global content platform that seeks to identify, understand and support influencer culture globally.

By bringing tastemakers and game-changers across industries and territories together, InfluencerCon establishes itself as the standard bearer for those who are pushing boundaries and innovating.

In Mumbai, The Influencer Conference will be held at Studio X Mumbai and features some exciting influential individuals such as Design Thinker, Sonia Manchanda; Head of Godrej India Culture Lab, Parmesh Shahani; Entreprenuer and Managing Director of DisneyUTV Digital, Vishal Gondal; Co-Founder of Greenlight Planet, Mayank Sekshsaria; Artist/Producer, Ma Faiza; and Author/Journalist Deepanjana Pal. Through the diversity of their backgrounds, speakers will showcase ways of breaking down traditional thinking, and ways of pushing boundaries to inspire innovation and meaningful change in line with the theme of this year’s conference. 

Organised around the sub-themes ‘Inspire’, ‘Disrupt’ and ‘Engage’, this year’s conference will be accompanied by various interactive activities throughout the duration catering to diverse tastes and interests, including a live art battle (Secret Wars, by Monorex), showcase of new local musicians and DJs (Check at the Door, by C@TD) as well as an Innovation Lab, and Idea Funhouse. 

InfluencerCon seeks to break down traditional “silo-ed” thinking and encourage cross functionality. Creativity, open and fair exchange, passion, collaboration and a commitment to rich and authentic experiences are critical elements of influencer culture.

More information on: www.influencercon.com

CAMP | talk on artist collective

Art historian Murtaza Vali discusses the Wharfage Project, an audio-visual-installation piece carried out by the Indian art collective CAMP at the 2009 Sharjah Biennieal. Recorded at the Cabinet art space in Brooklyn as part of ArteEast's Across Histories lecture series.

endocrine films | indian artist video portraits

Artist/Director Vaibhav Raj Shah documented young Indian Contemporary Artists T Venkanna, Chandni Vora, Sandeep Kumar Singh and more as part of artist video portraits. The series has been titled 'The Adjective' and produced by ENDOCRINE FILMS. For more, checkout his facebook page -- https://www.facebook.com/EndocrineFilms  

Mushrooms in Mumbai | Dharavi Slums

During the Indian Civil War, the Dharavi slums of Mumbai were flooded with refugees looking to escape the conflict. The Mumbai authorities, distracted by defence of the city and facing an already over-populated and poverty stricken slum could do little to maintain a semblance of civilised life in the area. Sometime later a cache of biological samples appeared through the criminal networks of Mumbai, in the vain hope that it might provide new marketable narcotic opportunities. The collective drive and expertise of the refugees managed to turn theses genetically-engineered fungal samples into a new type of infrastructure Ð providing heat, light and building material for the refugees. Dharavi rapidly evolved itÕs own micro-economy based around the mushrooms. This documentary tells the story of some of the characters involved from Mumbai and the rest of the world and how Dharavi came to be such a unique place.

The Hinglish Project

Welcome to 'The Hinglish Project'. Through this unique font design, you can tell the phonetic sound of a Hindi character by looking at the corresponding Roman letter superimposed on it. 

Hindi is written in the Devanagri script, which has many more characters than the English alphabet. This font, then, cannot teach you how to read words as they are spelt in Hindi, but its aim is to demystify individual letters in its script and make India more approachable. 

Despite the superficial distinctiveness of English and Hindi, the two borrow from the same phonetic pool - they both belong to the Indo-European group of languages. This font design playfully highlights these commonalities. To quote a now-popular phrase, "We're same same, but different!"

www.thehinglishproject.com 

Fresh & Local | Urban Farming in Bombay

Fresh & Local is a movement to facilitate urban farming in Mumbai, India.

Started in the spring of 2010, in response to the lack of fresh and organic produce, and the lack of resources and support for urban farming in the city. The organization researches and develops best practices, design gardens and garden products, host gardening workshops and work in partnership with NGOs and individuals to set up kitchen gardens across the city. We believe that by creating replicable models of urban farming we can inspire the changes needed to improve access to quality food for all Mumbai residents.

To support them for their next big project 'Flyover Farm' checkout their Kickstarter page here --- http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/495230553/flyover-farm?ref=live

Get connected on Facebook here --- https://www.facebook.com/freshandlocalindia

To volunteer contact --- Liam Rees +91 9930829762 liam@freshandlocal.org

Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse)

An Adaptation of Gurdial Singh's novel, Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse) is Gurvinder Singh's first feature film.

Directed by: Gurvinder Singh
Produced by: National Film Development Corporation (NFDC)
Creative Producer: Late Mani Kaul
Cinematography: Satya Rai Nagpaul
Editor: Ujjwal Chandra
Line Producer: Kartikeya Narayan Singh
Music: Catherine Lamb

Anhey Ghorey... sweeped the National Film Awards this year, the film won the Best Director Award, Award for Best Cinematography and was also honored by the Best Punjabi Language Film.

Contemporary Artist in Bombay

The 4th edition of India Art Fair 2012 might have got mixed reviews in terms of sales, visitors, galleries, etc and more so with the fact that a lot of Indian galleries were trying to clear their dead stock from last year and that it was rather less exciting. However, MASI found an exciting piece of work that might have been missed by many.


The work was a photograph -- a self-portrait of the artist that was stamped with a date and city name in hindi font and then stacked at benches inside the exhibition. We decided to track down the artist.

Presenting Armando Miguelez Giambruno -- a world traveler/artist who now lives and works in Bombay.

Artist statement --

Aquí Ahora is a time stamp proof of participation, where I disseminate hand outs with the image of my face stating the time and place where the hand out is distributed. The piece is a succession of my own aging process, and a travelogue of my itinerant existence. This is a piece in progress, like much of my work regarding photography, the final piece will be the sum of all the small parts over the years.

Cobra In India

Children of the Pyre | Indian Documentary

More Documentaries scheduled for March and April via Enlighten Cinema.

Narendra Yadav opening at Gallery Maskara, Bombay

MARCH 22nd 2012
6:30 p.m.
Bombay
GALLERY MASKARA

"Moments and Centers" - Shankar Tucker