Ln tallur biography of abraham
•
The Khoj Book 1997-2007: Contemporary Art Practice in India
'The Khoj Book was born of a desire to mark the first ten years of Khoj International Artists' Association. What began as a celebration impulse has, however, shifted into a consolidated reflection of, and on, contemporary art practice in India during a particularly dynamic period. The book contains interviews of 101 Indian artists who have passed through our doors at Khoj over that decade, while the essays by eminent art critics and thinkers situate and critique Khoj itself within a wider art historical context.
The interview format - now an accepted genre in art history and criticism - was a natural choice for us. A constant struggle at Khoj has been to capture in print the energy of the many dialogues that develop as artists work together. While it is difficult to replicate the intensity of spontaneous exchange over burnt toast and computer crashes, we hope that the interviews of artists by artists will not only contribute to contemporary discourse and learning but will inspire conversations between peers to continue.
A unique compendium, The Khoj Book, we anticipate will provide the reader and researcher with material 'in the artist's own words' and a context from which to draw their own conclusions.' (Preface)
W
•
Tallur L. N.
Dividing his time between Korea and India, Tallur L. N. hasn’t had a solo exhibition in Mumbai in ten years. This show, titled “Placebo,” is stuffed with macabre sculptural installations and makes up for lost time. Tallur’s medicinal title alludes to society’s tendency to delude itself and to believe that it has a cure for its ills. The artist took courses in museology at Baroda’s MS University, and the discipline exerts a strong hold over his art, which gleefully dismantles institutional structures.
“Placebo” lampoons stifling paradigms of power. Souvenir Maker, 2009, is its most impressive work. Occupying a single room, the site-specific installation includes a machine noisily engaged in producing barbed wire and a table on which pieces of gold-plated wire rest in glass bottles arranged in neat rows. A looped sound track plays the national anthems of forty countries, including India’s. Jingoistic nationalism (evoked by the anthems), violence, and capitalism are here equated with one another. After two minutes of walking around this loud display, visitors might be itching to escape. Perhaps this is exactly what Tallur intends. Less interactive but also dripping with irony is Untitled (Halo), 2009. Resemb
•
|