It’s all in the cards

Fifty-five leading Indian contemporary artists paint their interpretation of a playing card each

At some point of time in our growing years we all have played rummy, bluff or teen patti with friends and family. But have we ever wondered what will a playing card look like if the queen wore a burkha or the king of hearts had a flower in his hand In a unique exhibition titled “Deck of Cards|Taash ke Patte”, 110 artists from India and Britain have come together to showcase a collection of work representing their interpretation of the playing cards.

The idea came from a similar pack by British artists created in 1976 using different mediums like paintings, sculptures and photographs. Talking about the concept Laura Williams, curator of the show says, “Whilst at home with a client in London I spotted an interesting collection of art works on his wall. They turned out to be the original artworks from ‘The Deck of Cards’, a collection he had bought in 1976 after the exhibition at a London Gallery wherein 54 leading British artists were sent a playing card in the post and asked to make one artwork of a specific size — their interpretation of that card. As I looked at the artworks, which were very representative of British art in the 1970’s, I immediately knew that I would like to make an Indian Deck of Cards. Artists whose work I appreciated and many I have worked with immediately started running through my mind. The collection would be fun but also an important slice of the Indian art world at a particular moment.”

Laura pulled together an impressive line-up of India’s leading and emerging contemporary artists and has made a new Indian collection, ‘Taash ke Patte’. The participants include Anjolie Ela Menon, Jogen Choudhary, K.G. Subramanyan, Rameshwar Broota, Krishen Khanna and Arpita Singh. “We wanted to show a range of artistic practices integral to India and tried to invite artists from across the country showing the history, diversity and expanse of art here,” shares Laura.

Each work in this exhibition has a unique interpretation and what is interesting is that each artwork has a different approach to the subject, explains Laura. She avers, “In other words the 55 individual artworks can also be viewed as one individual work. The artworks that make up ‘Taash ke Patte’ hang alongside the original artworks from the 1976 British ‘Deck of Cards’. We can question the different approaches made by two artists from different geographic locations and forty years apart to the interpretation of one playing card.”

She continues, “In some cases we can wonder at the very similar interpretation. Taking the artworks as a whole we can question the different mediums chosen by the artists. So for instance in the 1976 ‘Deck of Cards’ there was a lot of painting and abstraction whereas in ‘Taash ke Patte’ photography in different forms is more prevalent as is collage. These are just a couple of examples. The question of ‘interpretation’ is interesting and involved but like the game they depict we must not discount chance.”

Contacting and visiting 55 of some of India’s leading artists was interesting. But the most interesting was choosing the cards, shares Laura. “Some artists knew which card they wanted, like Gulam Mohammed Sheikh for obvious reasons asked for a Jack, Shilpa Gupta asked for a three based on a project she was working on. Others like Krishen Khanna decided to let the card choose itself, he shuffled the pack and picked the top card which was the King of Hearts! The only artists I knew I wanted to do a particular card before I approached them was Thukral and Tagra who I really wanted to do the back of the card as I knew their playful, often central compositions would be perfect,” she concludes.