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On the Edge of Desire

Published: Volume 13, Issue 3, May-June, 2005

Nilima Sheikh’s resplendent casein tapestry alludes to the centuries of poetry and verse penned about the valley’s astounding beauty. But this is not the paradise on earth that Mughal emperors have eulogised; instead her bloodstained land echoes with tortured screams of despair.

The exhibits at the Asia Society and the Queens Museum of Art, New York, use irony and wit to demonstrate an authentic Indian idiom. US-based writer, Rukhmini Punoose, examines the multi-hued creations and exalts that the artists have not ‘commoditised’ their Indianness.

Non-Resident Indians in New York have long wondered why India’s rich wellspring of contemporary art has rarely graced the large galleries of the Big Apple. Finally, The Asia Society of New York and the Queens Museum of Art have decided to take matters into hand and remedy this with the largest exhibition ever held of contemporary Indian art in the United States. Co-organised by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Edge of Desire: Recent Art in India, showcases 80 works of sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, video and interactive media dating from 1993 to the present. For the first time, the Indian art world’s upper echelon is being shown alongside adivasi tribal chitrakars as well as groundbreaking emerging artists. The exhibit’s primary goal? To demonstrate India’s diverse visual culture to an unprimed audience. Melissa Chiu, the museum director of The Asia Society, stresses that there was a deliberate desire to not represent luminaries like M F Husain, Souza and Tyeb Mehta but instead to throw light on the parallel stream of established and emerging artists who rarely get a platform abroad.


Nataraj Sharma

Gulammohammed Sheikh	Swarna Chitrakar

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