Process and Precession

It has been a few years now since i started my journey of appreciating art and in the process have been walking up and down galleries and museums across the country, trying to catch up with shows, and training my eyes on what's on show and trying to figure out a taste for discerning what makes an impact and trying to articulate the what and why of the impacts. In recent times there has been a growing desire to see something breaking through, and there comes this evening when a group show, called Poka Yoke by NWNS group, opened in Chennai that cries in one loud voice to the art world in Chennai, to stop and take notice. 

NWNS ( New Works for New Systems) is an eclectic group of Indian artists based in different parts of the world from Berlin,to London, to Mumbai and Chennai and working with different mediums. This eclectism gives the group a definite edge. These are artists that have their pulse tuned to the Precessions in the world art scenario, and in the process have created art that are at the threshold and pushing the boundaries. This show is called Poka Yoke, in an antithetical play on the Japanese word referring to the practice of mistake proofing in an assembly line, and driving home the impossibility of a singular art experience.

 As one walks into the Labernum gallery at Cholamandal, one is easily lured to walking straight and taking a closer look at Ganapathy Subramaniam's five Prints of generative art, that from a distance look like musical notations, but on closer look reveal the glee and ecstasy of an artist who has just discovered the ideal convergence of his training in Computer programming and his art aesthetics cravings. GS has devised computer programs that will wield the brush and make the strokes for him. Through a few commands he decides on the depth, timbre, hue , etc of the strokes. 

This generative art, rightly called so, for the artist is driven by a certain melody, contemplates a certain set of stokes and these are simulated on to the program, that in turn generates this series of Melodic fragments. Understandably one is excited by the thought that, what is on display is only the tip of the iceberg, the opening glimpses of a grand Philharmonc orchestra that's in the making.

Vasundhara Sellamuthu's video instalation, 'Name on rice' looks deceptively simple, but offers a deeply moving and immersive experience at very different levels. At one level its a visual take on the traditional serving of meals on a Plantain leaf on the occassion of marriages in Tamilnadu as a pallete of colours, it zooms in on the food served to give us a sense of their porus, globular shapes, and it is also a reflective exercise on the tactility of the food and the discography between the fingers and the food served. The mangala music , that forms the background to any marriage occasion, accompanies the video and gives it a transportative effect. The work is an intelligent play on the physical and cultural conditioning of a population. It would be interesting to know how a viewer alien to the Tamil culture would engage with this video.

Al- Qawi Nanavati's 'letters to my Mother' is grief-itti on wall, a mosaic of stick slips with letters inscribed like calligraphy and love stitched on to it, symbolic of tears and prayer threads. It's a meditation on the loss of the artist's mother, in which the artist invites us join her in her prayers for lessening of her grief. This work is formidable in what it achieves on the sidelines of it's purported role in the show. Firstly, it invites the audience to participate in the work in an active physical, spiritual and aesthetic way than any work can possibly aspire to. And secondly it questions the idea of permanency and temporality of the art work by bringing on itself a process of gradual self destruction/ transformation. It would be an  interesting exercise to capture on video how viewers interact with the work and how it transforms over the time.

Sujeeth Kumar's decision to show the palette sheet By-product alongside his figurative painting, offers the viewer a chance to savour these artifacts that are usually discarded by the artist. It is understandable that Sujeeth has had to actively fight the devils of self doubts in putting these on display, for he is earnestly worried that his very decision to put these on display interferes with his painting process and makes him more conscious of what goes into the palette sheet. The Landscape he aspires to capture in 'Chaging seasons' is a very fascinating idea and an ambitious one. However he has had to settle for a domestically simulated process. It would be interesting to see what the idea looks like when executed in actual conditions. 

Arvind Sundar's exhibits aspire to bring together his fascination with the possiblities of the Grid pattern, experimenting with material and creating new geometric shapes. His works bring together on the one hand the raw,porous, patterned, and natural Jute and embeds upon it a skin of fabricated and smooth coloured plaster. He has worked this combination up by experimenting with colours and shapes of the plastered skin, offering an array of patterns and tactile icons.

Aruna Samivelu's works appear rich in process and intervention but somehow failed to engage with the me, probably because of the size or positioning of the works.

The group NWNS stands apart in it's embrace of the technology and striving to make a difference by playing around with the art process. The show also stands tall in it's coherent alignment to a novel curatorial idea and a well chiseled curatorial note that is integral to the show.

 The show is buzzing with a lot of Potential and in it's situation in the hallowed grounds of Cholamandal, makes a loud statement offering new and exciting directions to art in Chennai.

Super deluxe

Kumararaja Thiagaraja has thrown an another explosive mix of sleaze, philosophy, suspense, noir and fun at the Tamil audience and challenges them into judging his film. For an audience that has been fed with very simplistic and neat stuff, the heady mix this film offers is going to take some time to find resonance with. 

for people who take offence to the sleaze in the movie, one can only imagine Samantha holding a knife to their neck and beaming, if that was all they had to grab in all that was offered.

Four seemingly simple narratives make the film. But It is the way these stories are packed with some interesting twists and promising performances and the way these narratives are knotted together at unassuming junctions, that gravitates the experience this film offers. For quite a long time into the movie, even beyond the interval in the middle, the stories seemed disconnected and i was convinced the director should have made this into a graphic novel, rather than a movie. But once the connections between the story lines start revealing themselves the movie seemed to open so many interesting possibilities and you start realising that the fun has just started.

For me, the fun party reaches its ecstatic climax in the Super deluxe movie that plays within the movie, and a cutely winking Manushiyaputhiran featured in it topped it all..

The early part of the film, when the narratives slowly unfold was a little dreary but some scintilating features help the viewer hold on, looking forward to what was forth coming. It is crossing over this dreary initial phase that might be the biggest challenge to the viewer and the success of the movie. 

Some promising signals that this initial part held out, like the cool and casual Qazi ( can't help mention the stylish cat featured on his shirt), the drama and fun he and his accomplices promised to deliver; the interesting projection of the Rasukutti character ( can't help mention the shot capturing Rasukutti from behind, capturing him putting on his shirt and walking upto the edge of the terrace and looking down for his father, holding the frame in all majesty, quite extraordinary for a quaint figure) as holding out a big potential, making you wait to see how this 'little semi colon' of brilliance was to deliver; the little quirky noir part (that eventually fizzles out to nothing) also held out a captivating glamour to the movie; Fahad Fazil's Character that is of someone left to lurch in difficult waters and his performance that is  of someone struggling to put up a calm and  equanimous appearance held out promise in waiting to see how this character swims to out of trouble; and finally the suspense hanging around Ramyakrishnan's Character all make it worth the rigour in crossing the dreary part of the movie. 

But once the criss crosses in the story lines start revealing interesting patterns and exciting possiblities and the narratives are steered to an exciting track and some brilliant performances unfold, namely the charecter of the Police officer, and some impossible twists to the tales like that of the alien Charecter appear, you know that the fun in the Party is out of hands and has reached hallucinogenic levels and you are just left asking for more.. 

the picture frames of the movie remind one of frames from a graphic novel. There are Windows with interesting designs, floors with interesting patters, Block houses that appear the same all over and dull. Vijaysethupathi is very convincing in his portrayal of the Charecter of a transgender. His costume and appearance add a lot of colour to the movie.  

Some of the dialogues in the movie sparkle with a freshness and timelessness. Many of Fahad 's ramblings though grossly out of place and context make one sit up, like when he quips,  why condone only caste sentiments, when any identity related sentiment like nation, language are celebrated and revered. The brilliance in Rasukutti charecter signs of with the moving words, 'i don't care if u r man or a woman, just stay with us'

There are no songs in the movie but popular tracks have been used to elevate the effects in the movie. The movie signs off in a very sprightly mood helped by the track of 'I am a disco dancer' ..

It is easy for an audience that tends to pick on logic and reason to be disappointed by this movie, but for those who are happy to play along with the director this movie offers exciting stuff.