India Art Fair director Jaya Asokan gives a sneak preview of what to expect when it debuts in February.
Swati Bhat
Play Area, 2018, Dia Mehhta Bhupal, diasec print.Galleryske
Right now. In a brand-new world that has been altered by the epidemic, where we are more aware of the role that creativity and art can play in fostering empathy, fostering cross-cultural connections, and advancing a community. We want India Art Fair to be a gathering place for artists and non-artists alike in the upcoming year and to be an inclusive venue in the purest meaning of the word.
In order to keep loyal to our aim of delivering the best contemporary art from South Asia and India in one location, we have pooled our collective knowledge from the last several years for this edition. A gifted Warli artist duo, the Vayeda Brothers, who add a modern perspective to the traditional art form from Maharashtra, will turn the fair facade into a "Forest of the Future" to make space for traditional art forms of South Asia.
Debashish Paul and Lakshmi Madhavan, two of our other artists in residence, will demonstrate innovative ideas. While Paul will explore his gay identity through a performance art piece, Madhavan's commitment to community will be evident in her exhibit of vibrant white and gold kasavu fabrics created in partnership with the rapidly disappearing Balarampuram weavers in Kerala.
I have a lot of enthusiasm for some of our artistic endeavours. My favourites are a monumental sculpture resembling a pelvic bone by Prashant Pandey that alludes to the wonderful moment of the birt, Parag Tandel's thought-provoking sculpture installation, an eight-foot-tall, twisted fibreglass scale by Shivani Agarwal that invites viewers to measure the intangible, such as emotions of love, joy, intimacy, and truth, and Shivani Agarwal's surreal scale.