20th century French philosopher Jean Baudrillard provides the inspiration for an upcoming show at the Stainless Gallery, New Delhi from 23rd to 30th November.

Baudrillard postulated that reality and meaning in their authentic or original forms no longer exist in modern society; they have been replaced by symbols and signs. He called these simulacra: “The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth – it is the truth which conceals that there is none.” This (dis)appearance of reality informs the curatorial concept for the new show, which seeks to investigate the relationship of art with reality in the age of simulacra.

Curators Meena Vari and Arvind Lodaya teach at the Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Bangalore, an institution known internationally for its avant-garde exploration of art and design, particularly through New Media. Vari and Lodaya curated their first such show last year at the Kashi Art Gallery in Kochi, called “Material Texts”, to critical acclaim. Their vision is to introduce Indian art audiences to experimental and new/innovative media works that draw upon the aesthetics and politics of science, technology and media, and stimulate new forms of artistic practice.

Their new show, “Notes on the (Dis)appearance of The Real”, features works by eleven Indian artists, each of whom responds to the curators’ exploration of how image has mutated from a representation of reality to a reality in and by itself.

Says Vari: “We adored Baudrillard’s ideas as students and scholars of art, but never felt that what he wrote about would apply to our own context in our lifetime. When I revisited his text for a course that I was teaching, I was shocked to discover how simulacra had crept up in our midst as well. Many of our young people believe that is how reality really is.”

Lodaya adds: “It seems a cliché – probably is, as well – but our sense of reality is almost entirely drawn from a closed referential system of signs and images; we have few options where we can still sense it and make sense of it. Our tinted-glass windows are always pulled up, and our LCD screens are always pulled down. It would be tempting to flip Baudrillard and claim that reality has replaced image as a kind of fictional universe.”

Artists : Abhishek Hazra, Anup Mathew Thomas, Baptist Coelho, Hemali Bhuta, Prajjwal Choudhury, Priti Vadakkath, Rakhi Peswani, Shreyas Karle, Surajit Sarkar, Susanta Mondal and Yashas Shetty