Says Bhavna Kakar, Director, Latitude 28: “In line with Latitude 28’s other experiments with contemporary art, we decided to throw our space open to the diverse practices of these three young artists. Technology, inventive use of material and the unconventional ideas that feature in the work of these artists, along with their sense of irony and wit should turn out to be a unique experience in the gallery. ”
The title of the show was chosen by the trio, as Kumar reveals, to “give an edgy, contemporary name to our work, which says a lot about our society and world but in a cheeky, fun way without sermonising.” True to the title of the show, the works treat probing realities of everyday life ironically, and bring out contemporary concerns by playing with materials and challenges the viewer’s sensibilities with quirk and wit. The glitch often opens unexpected doors leading to the whimsical as well as the profound. The show has also managed to reach out to a large community of artists, art enthusiasts and others merely interested in the glitch through a Facebook group called Glitch. This Facebook group is part of the process behind the process of the show where ideas are continually generated, and possible glitches recorded. Starting from 10th August, some of these ideas will get incorporated into the show, as the three artists will collaborate to develop site-specific projects that uniquely respond to the gallery space besides the premeditated artworks that will be shown.
Nandita Kumar is showing five works in different mediums. The first, a triptych of three ultraviolet prints on raw aluminum sheet, is titled Revenge of the Non, which is about figures, objects and ideas of excess and obsolescence. In the first drawing, for instance, he makes a fly sit on an egg, the other is an inverted spinal cord with pelvic bone and the third is of a rat morphing into a formless mass. “The work is based on the concept that the meek shall one day inherit the earth. It’s an ode to the powerless who are merely cogs in a so called functional system, and how their time has come to take revenge.” Kumar in that sense is questioning democratic systems where all are deemed equal and yet some are more equal than the others.
Kumar has also created a limited edition comic book (black and white) of twenty pages called Please Don’t Turn Septic which will be distributed free in the gallery. With drawings of distorted human body parts on each page and text running through the comic reading “Don’t be surprised when it’s revealed that we really are animals and the brain is much like claws, fangs and talons and hair. Remember that despite our savage fate what saves is no pedicure or porcupines”, the comic book is a continuation of his art of graphic storytelling.
Kumar’s third work is a small cake made of dentures and coaltar titled You look silly when you fall. The work will be mounted on a jar of glycerine and as the coaltar melts over a period of time, all that will remain is the denture. “Coaltar is symbolic of development and what I’m trying to say here is that in the process of ‘so called development’, one has to fall.”
The fourth work by Kumar will be a functioning doorbell with a post-it next to it that has loosely scribbled, "The contemporary has no future" with a standard issue ballpen. The doorbell is a time travelling device, transporting the user into the foreseeable future of a door opening, a space unveiling, an encounter. The doorbell here has no door. There is only the trigger for an encounter, no possibilities.
Prayas Abhinav has also worked in mixed media, with the first installation work titled Lack-lustre Narratives and made up of Software, bluetooth keyboard, projector and paper. He explains: “If you type in inconsistent rhythms, the narrative keeps getting fragmented and scattered. This is a text-editor which tracks your typing rhythm and responds to it fragmenting the text if the pace is not rhythmic. .”
Abhinav’s second work is titled Meri Jaan Tere Daant Me Hai (My Life Is In Your Teeth) and is an interactive video, webcam, screen, glass with mechanical contraptions where the video changes its sequence of edit if the viewer smiles.
His third work is a print titled Panic which is about a world in which vision and sight is compulsory. It is necessary to always keep your eyes open and escape is not possible. The Third Star FromThe Left is another of his works which is made up of jeans, water, text, blower and drawing.
Siddhartha Kararwal has made a series of large scale installations which follows his work with plastic and other indigenous materials, this time focusing on powdered and processed fabric. His idea is to break the visual baggage which a viewer brings along every time he sees a work of art. The challenge is to subvert the interference that the potential of a material faces from the culturally charged perception that it already has, the notions it brings with it – breaking the meaning of the material to create something new, trigger an unfamiliar reaction. These concerns are evident in his recent large scale installations like Tomato Mashers and Lick Stick.
