[인도의 현대미술] Exhibition gives peek into today's India

2009.4.23

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A life-size elephant sculpture sits on the floor in an exhibition hall at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. Its body is covered with bindis, ornaments in the shape of a water drop that Indian women stick on their foreheads.

This sculpture, named "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own" by Bharti Kher, ushers in the beginning of the biggest-ever exhibition of Indian arts in Korea, "Contemporary Indian Art: Open Your Third Eye."

"We can't be sure whether the elephant is trying to get up or just settling down," said exhibition curator Kim Nam-in.

Like the elephant's ambiguous posture, the rest of the exhibits reflect the unstable, quickly changing situation in the nation of nearly 1.2 billion people.

Indian culture has been gaining more recognition recently thanks to Bollywood and its booming economy, and most recently, the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire." In step with the craze, Indian contemporary art is also being considered as a blue chip in the international art community.

"We've been holding surprisingly many exhibitions overseas in the last few years. What is so great about India? Come and visit, you will know," said N.S. Harsha, one of the artists who participated in the exhibition.

The same show was held at Mori Museum in Japan last November with the title "Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art." The content is the same - about 110 pieces by 27 Indian contemporary artists - but the Korean museum changed the arrangements of the exhibits and the exhibition's title.

"The third eye signifies bindi and also a new sense to enjoy art. India is a place where various people, religions and spirits collide and make different images which you will need to look at with your third eye," Kim said.

Jiten Thukral and Sumir Tagra created a posh room filled with syrup and wine bottles, flowery wall paper and embroidered picture frames and clocks - all probably mass produced in the United States. Young Indian boys smile in the pictures.

"It shows how Indians today live a luxurious life in Canada, America, or Europe, and how they had to sacrifice their younger days for such dreams," explained Kim.

Jitish Kallat expresses the gap between the rich and the poor in India in his work "Death of Distance." Behind a giant one Rupee coin, lenticular plates which show different messages according to the direction of the viewer are hung on the wall. Viewers can read an ad from one side which says "With 1 Rupee, you can call anywhere in India," and a sad story from the other, about an Indian girl who had to starve because she did not have a single Rupee.

Another exhibition on Indian art, more focused on Indian women, is currently running at Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Sunhwa-dong, central Seoul.

The show "Celebrating Women - Amrita Shergil Revisited" exhibits 31 paintings by contemporary Indian women artists. They are their interpretations of a national treasure - "The Three Girls," by Amrita Shergil.

"Shergil was the youngest and the only Asian artist to be an associate of the Grand Salon in 1933, which is one of the prominent art clubs in Paris. She was one of the greatest artists in India, who encouraged a generation of women to paint," explained Satish Sharma, second secretary of the Indian Embassy and the organizer of the exhibition.

"Women have come to occupy a better status and very central positions nowadays. This exhibition can be called a celebration about women," Sharma added.

Viewers can discover different characteristics of each Indian region reflected in the artwork. The skin colors, costumes and expressions of the three girls in the paintings all differ according to the regional base of the artist.

The exhibition "Contemporary Indian Art: Open Your Third Eye" runs through June 7. Admission is 5,000 won. For more information, call (02) 2188-6114 or visit www.moca.go.kr

The exhibition "Celebrating Women - Amrita Shergil Revisited" runs through April 30 at Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Sunhwa-dong, central Seoul. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.kfcenter.or.kr

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)

Addressing the question 'To Have or To Be?'

2009.1.14

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Philosopher Erich Fromm raised the question "to have or to be" in 1976, presenting his analysis of two modes of human existence: having and being. More than 30 years have passed since then, but the question is still intriguing.

Living in a materialistic world where money is often considered the ultimate value, it can be confusing whether we are respectable individuals as we are said to be, or are merely an accessory to a society helping the money flow.

Some contemporary artists pondered this question, the results of which are showing at Korea Foundation Cultural Center Galleries in Sunhwa-dong. It displays works by 14 artists who answered the question in their own way.

The exhibition is titled "Encounter: Dublin, Lisbon, Hong Kong and Seoul."

"We hold exhibitions of Korean contemporary artists in different countries every year, but found out that the exhibits are even less well-known in Korea," said Jienne Liu, curator of the exhibition, at a press conference last week.

"So we decided to bind the exhibitions that we held in Dublin, Lisbon, and Hong Kong last year under the theme 'To Have or To Be,' and throw an exhibition here," Liu said.

This time, the local artists of Dublin, Lisbon, and Hong Kong also participate in the exhibition. Works by Anthony Haughey from Dublin, Antonio Julio Duarte from Lisbon, and Wilson Shieh and Lui Chunkwong from Hong Kong are featured.

The exhibition is divided into two parts, one led by the theme "to have," and the other one by "to be."

In the first division, Jung Yeon-doo, now a world famous video artist, tries to show how vain the idea of possession can be. Jung took photos of typical leisure spots like the beach, but instead of appearing peaceful and joyful, the scenes look fake and artificial.

"At first glance, it might look like a natural scene, but if you take a closer look, you can see that Jung built the sets and created the whole scene from scratch," explains Liu. "It implies how the people of today are ... at the border of truth and falsity."

Nearby, a large porcelain sculpture named "Translated Vases" stands. It is a work by Yee Soo-kyung, who glued broken pieces of ceramic together with 24K gold.

"Gold is commonly used when amending ceramics in Korea, but foreigners were surprised to see it when it was showcased in other countries," said Liu. This Korean-style sculpture signifies life, which is made upon fragments of ceramics that are metaphors for trial and error. The more mistakes we make, the more mature our lives get.

High up on the wall in the next division, a screen plays out an unbelievable scene. Someone keeps on pouring tea into a teacup, but it never overflows. In fact, it manages to hold the exact same amount hour after hour. The video is "Being There," by Hwang Haesun.

"Hwang makes the viewers doubt the difference between reality and fiction, thus realizing the futility of human desire," explained Liu.

The exhibition runs through Jan. 21 at Korea Foundation Cultural Center Galleries in central Seoul. Admission is free. For more information, call (02) 3789-5600 or visit www.kfcenter.or.kr

By Park Min-young

(claire@heraldm.com)