SUBVERTING THE AESTHETIC
Excuses for creating social, political stirs like changing colonial names of buildings and streets, vote banks swinging caste matters and religious fundamentalism that shape everyday battles in India’s backyards are the subjects Archana Hande takes up in her latest body of work. Hande sifts the subcontinent’s complex history to question the validity of stirring up storms over caste and so-called Indian culture in her solo show Relics of Grey and has employed a lengthy research process to build a three-part installation individually titled White Town, Grey Town and Black Town respectively. These comprise replicas of landmark buildings such as the erstwhile Victoria Terminus, more recent BPO buildings with a typical glass facade and a house made of railway tracks. Photographs and audio videos of interviews with ordinary Indians are also employed. Each ‘town’ raises independent set of concerns that are linked by their relevance to the present. She challenges the relevance of the name ‘Chattrapati Shivaji Raje’ for a structure made in the Venetian Gothic style of architecture, when the original name, Victoria Terminus, places it in its correct historical and aesthetic context.

Displacement is a catchword in Hande’s work. However, she is not just referring to the term in its geographical context, but alludes to the shifts in the power and the economy of the country that is shaking out concepts and beliefs.
(Showing at Chemould Art Gallery, Mumbai from July 5 to August 4)

STILL CRAZY
As we saw in Kunwarji’s Muses at Articullate recently and will see in his new series Crazy Stills that is headed abroad, the water colours and prints by Dileep Sharma are at once playful while skillfully blending the classical with the kitsch. Undoubtedly his use of flat colours and intricate detailing echo miniature painting, but the pop icons and tattoo-like embellishments as well as his humour-laden brush are unmistakably his own. While Sharma’s depiction of human anatomy is often decorative, what makes his work quirky and entertaining is his peculiar preoccupation with bare female legs that dates back to his memories of his native Rajasthan. More enchanting, however, is his blue-blooded protagonist (and alter ego?) ‘Kunwarji’, who materialises like a signature on his canvas. (Showing at The Gallery on Cork Street, London from 8 -14 July) - ML