The Network: Contemporary art from New Zealand; Nandita Kumar: Let the brainfly
New Zealand planted its flag firmly on Mumbai’s art scene this April as two exhibitions opened in well established galleries in the hip Colaba district. The Network: Contemporary Art from New Zealand at Chatterjee & Lal was presented in collaboration with Jonathan Smart Gallery from Christchurch, and a short walk down the lane, Lakeeren Gallery exhibited LeT tHe bRAinFly by another New Zealand-based artist, Nandita Kumar.
In sweltering Mumbai, the appeal of New Zealand (NZ) was instantly romantic. Images of rolling hills, blue streams, green fields came to mind. In popular culture, the scenic landscapes that backdrop Peter Jackson’s blockbusters, reinforce this environmental ideal. However The Network attempted to go further than these tropes to offer an insight into what concerns artists of, or from, New Zealand. A group show of eight artists, The Network is the first leg of a reciprocal project that culminates in an exhibition of Indian artists at Jonathan Smart Gallery in 2015. Professing to being an opportunity for a ‘cross-pollination of ideas’, it was interesting to note works by two diaspora artists—Sanjay Theodore who curated the show, and Yuk King Tan.
Theodore, having recently relocated to India from NZ with his family, presented Bring Back Buck, a shelter of blue tarpaulin held in place by bamboo scaffolding, no doubt a reaction to the city’s breathlessly expanding urbanisation. Colloquially known as Taad-Patri, the cobalt-blue tarp, a multi-purpose, water resistant material that is cheap and utilised by the masses, is ubiquitous on the sprawling city-scape, in view even before one lands at the airport. What changes when this material is appropriated by an artist and placed within an up-scale art gallery where its audience is
Sanjay Theodore, Bring Back Buck, 2014. Installation detail. Courtesy the artist and Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai.
Yuk King Tan, Scavenger, 2008. Still, DVD, 14 mins, 22 secs. Courtesy the artist and Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai.
