What a 'site'

There are things that are seen and there are things that are felt. Art helps one capture both on canvas, through a constant dialogue that exists between the subject and the artist.

Depicting this relationship, an exhibition titled ‘Open Day’ was recently organised by the Serendipity Arts Foundation in collaboration with the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art. It presented the works of artists with a complete focus on the ‘site’ and its role in art-making — be it the spatial location of the subject, the perspective with which an artist looks at it, as the many abstract connotations it presents. In the words of Vidya Shivadas, director, we learn that the exhibition’s subject matter extended to the “institutional, political and social structures that order bodies in certain ways and engender particular relationships.”

The artists on display included Ankan Dutta, Dhrubajit Sarma, Gyanwant Yadav, Maksud Ali Mondal, Selvam P., Shikha Sreenivas, Shweta Sharma, Tanaya Rao Raj, Umesh Singh, and V. Prabhu.

Coming to the works, one derived a sense of intrigue from them. Vidya agreed and said, “I think the works have not been as much about representing or replicating the site as in creating a relationship with it via materials, via the spatial experience they produce.” She further pointed out, “So it does produce an intensity of that encounter which is very sensorial and also working at many levels.”

Each work had a unique story to tell. Vidya revealed, “The works have different ways of speaking — some remain invisible and others are spectacular. An exhibition is an accumulation of different experiences and the works come together to produce this. It is, of course, not a singular experience either and each viewer will make their own connections, form their own itineraries, and make their own readings.”

As for those with the artistic eye, we caught up with artist Dhrubajit Sarma, who, as a part of the exhibition, had documented his surroundings through photographs, drawings, and newspaper clippings. He said, “My mind was preoccupied with the recent political unrest in Assam, where 19 lakh people were declared illegal immigrants through the NRC process, and are denied the right to be Indian citizens.”

He often engages in a dialogue with his work. He explained, “Through the process of a work, I try to connect all those fragments of observations, documentations, and memories and try to understand their context from geographical, socio-political, cultural, and historical perspectives.”