This exhibition begins with the premise that the classical sculptural object is no longer tenable, and that the most interesting sculpture being produced today emerges from a science of dematerialized objects.

Thus, the physical experience of this exhibition will not be programmed for the conventional ‘viewer looks at objects held in place’ situation. Instead, the objects that form my display comprise video footage of self-destruct sculpture; sculpture as the performance of moving parts; sculpture in a condition of meltdown and remaking; or sculpture that takes the viewer for a walk along a conceptual map studded with text.

In every period, practitioners of sculpture renew their ways of making in accord with the tendencies of their age. Today, therefore, sculptors interrogate solidity, monumentality and stasis – instead, they imbue their sculpture with various other qualities, including provisionality, fluidity, intimacy and remote presence.

This show will concentrate on the performative aspects of sculpture, as objects of art emplace and simultaneously displace contexts of spectatorship and vice versa. The displacement of object and meaning in the extended-sculpture realm challenges, even mocks received ideas about sculpture. This opens the door for two alternatives. On the one hand, we can re-objectify the object along different norms. On the other hand, we can move to a post-object sculpture: we can address the after-life of the
object, looking for the lost sculptural qualities and finding them transformed/morphed, made anew.

 --Nancy Adajania  

Nancy Adajania is a cultural theorist, art critic and independent curator. She has written and lectured extensively on contemporary Indian art, especially new-media art and its political and cultural contexts, at international venues such as Documenta 11, Kassel; the Zentrum fur Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe; the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and the Transmediale, Berlin; the Danish Contemporary Art Foundation, Copenhagen; Lottringer 13, Munich, among others.

She is a contributor to Springerin, Vienna, and Metamute, London, Public Art, Minnesota, Art 21, Paris, Art Asia Pacific, New York  and X-Tra, Los Angeles. She has been Editor-in-Chief of Art India, in which capacity she developed a discursive space for emergent new-media and public art practices on a global level. Adajania was co-curator for the exhibition 'Zoom! Art in Contemporary India' (Lisbon, April 2004).

Adajania held an Independent Research fellowship given by Sarai-CSDS, (2004-05), and studied the popular use of digital manipulation techniques of imaging in metropolitan India. She has since articulated her research in an archive-installation, 'In Aladdin's Cave,' exhibited at 'On difference 2/Grenzwertig' (Wuerttembergische Kunstverein, Stuttgart, February 2006).

**********

Anita Dube studied Art Criticism at the M S University, Baroda. She was involved with the activities of the Indian Radical Painters and Sculptors Association until 1989. She started experimenting with sculpture on her own initiative in 1987. Solo shows, include: in 1992: Desire Garden, Community Hall, Tara Apts. New Delhi; in 1999: You tell what you know down here, girl, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; in 2000: Via Negativa, Nature Morte, New Delhi; in 2003: The Sleep of Reason, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai; in 2005: Illegal, Nature Morte, New Delhi and Bose Pacia, New York. Select group shows include: in 2003: How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age, The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Vanitas Vanitatum, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai and Androgyne, India Habitat Center, New Delhi; in 2005: iCon: Indian Contemporary Art at the Venice Biennale, Italy.

**********  

Jehangir Jani is an autodidact, having trained himself in various disciplines such as, painting, sculpture, installation and filmmaking. His film Makeups was shown recently in a multiplex context. Solo shows include: in 1998: Fairie Tales…A Relook, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 2000: Stories, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai; in 2002-2003: Lazarus and Anarkali, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata; in 2004: Portraits, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai and in 2006: Peers, Gallery Espace, New Delhi. He has attended various residencies and workshops, including: in 1997, The Painter’s Workshop, Indo-Australian conference, Mumbai; in 2001: International Sculptor’s Residency, JACIC, Mumbai; in 2003: Visiting Lecturer at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; in 2003: Khoj International Artists Workshop, Bangalore and The Krishnakriti Arts Festival, organized by Kalakriti, Hyderabad.

**********  

Kausik Mukhopadhyay studied at the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. Solo show: in 2000: Day and Night Show Peace, Lakeeren, The Contemporary Art Gallery, Mumbai. Group shows include: in 2001: Century City – Art and Culture in the Metropolis, Tate Modern, London and Art on the Move, SAHMAT, New Delhi; in 2002: Glued, Sumukha Art Gallery, Bangalore and Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Greenwich University, London; in 2004: Edge of Desire, Perth, Australia and Diverge, NGMA, Mumbai; in 2005: We are like that only, Collaborative work with Mohua Ray.

**********  

Mithu Sen studied painting at Visva Bharti, Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan. Solo shows include: in 2000, Can we really look beyond the map? Art India Style, New Delhi; in 2001: Unbelongings, Macintosh Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland; in 2003: I Hate Pink, Lakeeren Art Gallery, Mumbai and in 2006: Drawing Room, British Council, New Delhi and Gallery Chemould, Mumbai. Select group shows include: in 1999: Emerging Trends, CIMA Gallery, Kolkata; in 2001: Glasgow Art Fair, Glasgow, Scotland; in 2003: Flag for Peace, Karachi, Pakistan; Through Customs, Bose Pacia Gallery, New York; in 2004: Wasani International Studio Open Day, Lamu Fort, Kenya and in 2005: Metrospective: Visual Representations of Metrosexuality, Kitab Mahal, Mumbai. She has attended various residencies and workshops in India and abroad.

**********

M S Umesh studied at the College of Fine Arts Bangalore University, Bangalore and did sculpture at M S University, Baroda. Solo shows include: in 1996, Earth work – A Time and Site-specific Project and in 2005: Rights/ Riots, time-specific interactive multimedia art, Bangalore. Select group shows include: in 2000:10 Years of Solitude, Stadt Museum, Stuttgart; in 2001: Us from Them, Performance, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart and Communication and War, Graz; in 2002: Site and Sight, International Traveling Exhibition, Singapore; in 2003: Edge of Desire, Travelling Group Show and in 2004: Crossing Currents: Video Art and Cultural identity, Delhi. He has been awarded various residencies and grants, including: in 1997: Sanskriti Award; in 1999: Residency at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany; in 2001 and 2002: Guest artist at Werk stadt Graz, Graz; in 2003: Residency at Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Prague and in 2004: Deveron Arts, Scotland. He has lectured at various art schools and worked with architects, filmmakers and dramatists.  

**********  

Navjot Altaf studied Fine and Applied Arts at the Sir J.J School of Arts, Mumbai. She has worked as a sculptor, installation artist, filmmaker and collaborative practitioner. Since 1973, she has had a number of solo and joint exhibitions in India, Germany, and the U.S. and has participated in major national and international exhibitions. She has participated in national and international artist’s workshops and residencies and has presented papers at seminars in Japan, Bangkok, U.K. and the U.S. on art in India. Since 1991 she has been engaged with interactive / collaborative projects with Indian and international visual artists, classical vocalists, documentary filmmakers, craftspeople and technicians, Since 1997 she has also been engaged with her ongoing site-specific art projects in collaboration with artists from Bastar, Central India. She lives and works in Mumbai and Bastar.

**********  

Pooja Iranna studied painting at the College of Art, New Delhi. Solo shows include: in 1996: Sridharani Gallery New Delhi; in 1999: House of Cards, Art Inc, New Delhi; in 2002: Wimbledon School of Art, London; in 2003: Metaphorical Mathematics, The Guild, Mumbai; in 2004: Metaphorical Mathematics – III, Sridharani Gallery, New Delhi. Group shows include: in 1992 and in 1998: Annual Exhibition of A.I.F.A.C.S.; in 1995: Two Women Artists, Sridharani Gallery and Art Today; in 1997: Art Konsult; in 1998: Gallery Espace, New Delhi; in 2000: The Kala Ghoda Art Festival and the 41st National Exhibition at the Lalit Kala Academy and in 2001: the 43rd National Exhibition, Bangalore. She has been the recipient of the Junior Fellowship by Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India in 1998 – 1999. National Scholarship by Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India – 1992-1995. She was awarded the Charles Wallace India Trust Award by the British Council in 2002 to work at Wimbledon school of Art, London where she also held her solo show titled Reflection. Her works are in important collections in India, New York, Thailand and the U.S. Jehangir Jani is an autodidact, having trained himself in various disciplines such as, painting, sculpture, installation and filmmaking. His film Makeups was shown recently in a multiplex context. Solo shows include: in 1998: Fairie Tales…A Relook, Jehangir Art Gallery, Mumbai; in 2000: Stories, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai; in 2002-2003: Lazarus and Anarkali, Mumbai, Bangalore and Kolkata; in 2004: Portraits, The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai and in 2006: Peers, Gallery Espace, New Delhi. He has attended various residencies and workshops, including: in 1997, The Painter’s Workshop, Indo-Australian conference, Mumbai; in 2001: International Sculptor’s Residency, JACIC, Mumbai; in 2003: Visiting Lecturer at the Ecole Des Beaux Arts, Paris, France; in 2003: Khoj International Artists Workshop, Bangalore and The Krishnakriti Arts Festival, organized by Kalakriti, Hyderabad.

**********  

Shilpa Gupta studied sculpture at the Sir J.J School of Arts, Mumbai. Solo shows, include: in 2001: at the Moving Image Centre, Auckland and Gallery 4A, Sydney; in 2002: Sentiment Express, Loftus Lloyd Café, Toronto; in 2003: Blessed bandwidth.net, Net Art Commission from Tate Online, London (launched at Gallery Chemould, Mumbai); in 2004: Your Kidney Supermarket, Oxford Bookstore, Mumbai; in 2005: at the Provisions Library, Resource Centre for Activism and Arts, Washington. DC and in 2006, Bose Pacia Gallery, New York. Select group shows, include, in 2005: 3rd Fukuoka Asian Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka; in 2006: Biennales in Liverpool, Havana and Sydney and in 2004, Zoom! Art in Contemporary India. She has received the Sanskriti Award, (New Delhi), Transmediale Award (Berlin) in 2004 and last year was the runner-up in the Leonardo Global Crossings Award, Leonardo Magazine, MIT Press. She lives and works in Mumbai.

**********

Subodh Gupta studied painting at College of Arts and Crafts, Patna. Solo exhibitions include: in 1999: The Way Home, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai; in 2003: This side is the other side, Cabinet, Art and Public, Geneva; in 2004: I go home every single day, The Showroom Gallery, London and in 2006: Nature Morte, New Delhi. Select group shows include: in 1999: The first Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; in 2000: Kwangju Biennale, Kwangju, South Korea; in 2002: Kapital and Karma, Kunsthalle Wien, Austria; in 2003: Havana Biennale and in 2005: Always a little further, 51st International Exhibition of Arts, Venice Biennale. He has been on various residencies including, in 2004: French Government Residency in Paris; visiting professorship at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris.  

Publishers :

© The Guild

All rights reserved under international Copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers