Monisha Ajgaonkar's Sensitive Photo Story on the Coming Out of a Transgender

An image from Monisha Ajgaonkar's new photo series "Blossom," on the coming out of a transgender. Image courtesy: Monisha Ajgaonkar.

It isn't often that one comes across a subject that floors you instantly. When I received a detailed mail from Monisha Ajgaonkar's rep on her new photo series, "Blossom," I knew there was a sensitive and a beautiful story waiting to be explored.
          Monisha is not an unfamiliar name in the wedding photography circles of Mumbai. She is also an LGBTQ activist who doesn't mince words when talking about this subject, but does it with great panache, as I discovered while speaking to her over phone on "Blossom." She says she has her hands full at any time of the year with wedding photography, but once annually, she does take some time off commercial work to create something straight out of heart, something that satisfies the creative individual inside her.
           "Blossom" is the result of her creative escapade from commercial photography this year. She undertook it in the month of June, the universal Pride Month, which incidentally was also the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in the US that gave birth to the Pride Movement. Want to know more about Stonewall Riots and the Pride Movement? Wikipedia has it all but one of the most easy to understand write-ups is on Encyclopaedia Britannica at this link.
          What's outstanding about "Blossom" is that it is a lovely unravelling of the process of coming out of a transgender, posed by Monisha's friend and an LGBTQ activist and Mr India Gay 2014 Sushant Divgikar (in the picture above).
            Please check out my interview with Monisha at www.blouinartinfo.com here.
Do check out the slideshow too as the whole series so beautifully reveals the gradual coming out of a transgender. Provocation is not always needed to underscore an important message.

Above and Below: Other images from "Blossom." Images courtesy: Monisha Ajgaonkar

That's Monisha. Image courtesy: Monisha Ajgaonkar

Valay Shende's Slice-of-Life Sculptures: True Spirit of Bombay

"Dabbawala," from Valay Shende's series of works celebrating Mumbai, titled "Spirit of Bombay" Image courtesy: Valay Shende

I recently had a wonderful opportunity to interview Mumbai-based Valay Shende. I've been an admirer of his art ever since I had seen images of his works many years ago. The first time I saw a Valay Shende sculpture in person was a few years ago at the India Art Fair. It was "Virar Local," a life-size sculpture made of stainless steel discs, depicting commuters hanging by an imaginary pole on the well-known local train of Mumbai.

"Virar Local" is part of Shende's most famous series, "Spirit of Bombay." As is obvious, it is a creative take on the maximum city's sprightly spirit, and "Dabbawala" sculptures (created in many versions) are some of the most loved.

The biggest "Dabbawala" rendition is outside the Haji Ali crossing in Mumbai, and anybody passing the street cannot miss it whatsoever. 

Right now, six works from the "Spirit of Bombay" series are on display at the Palladium mall in Mumbai.  

"Virar Local," from the series "Spirit of Bombay." Image courtesy: Valay Shende

It's not just the subject matter of Shende's life-size works that has a stunning impact, it's also the technique that he employs to create these works that dazzles — quite literally tonnes of small stainless steel discs are soldered together to create these works. As the works are hollow, it becomes relatively easier to transport these to venues all over the world — of course, only relatively easy when compared to a similar-sized bronze work. I'm told the work titled "Transit (Truck)" took almost a year to assemble.

Valay Shende with his installation, "Transit (Truck)" that is a comment on the immigrant workers coming to Mumbai daily in big numbers to build their lives. Image courtesy: Valay Shende


In my interview with Shende for Blouin Artinfo, he speaks about his works, his technique and how he strives to give creative expression to India's socio-political realities through his art. Check out the interview here: https://in.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/3704070/valay-shendes-spirit-of-bombay-at-the-palladium-mumbai 

                  
                       A glittering "Buffalo" from the same series. Image courtesy: Valay Shende

Shridhar Iyer's Solo "Tambulam" at Art Konsult Gallery Is An 'Offering' To Nature

Shridhar Iyer with his installation "Still, I love you," at his ongoing solo show, "Tambulam" at Art Konsult Gallery, Hauz Khas.

Shridhar and I share a common background — Bhopal, and we both shifted to Delhi almost around the same time, two decades ago. Yet, this is my first ever interview of his for a publication! 

Currently on view at Art Konsult gallery, Hauz Khas, New Delhi, the show is titled "Tambulam" and is curated by Rahul Bhattacharya. 

What resonated the most with me was his telling installation, accompanying his poem, "Amiya aur Champa ke Ped." 

Shridhar Iyer, "Amiya aur Champa ke Ped," 2019, mixed media, size variable, visual-sound installation.

The title of the poem, and the installation, were like a memory from a time long gone, something that I had seen growing up but had forgotten because I had not seen enough of it in my home for the past two decades — New Delhi.

No, this is not a rant against a big city life. I like living in New Delhi and this is the city that has given me my livelihood through a profession that I love being a part of — journalism and writing. Yet, one has been so caught up in the race for survival for the past two decades that sunrise, sunset, trees, chirping of birds, the soft smell of wet earth... all went out of life as hours increasingly got consumed sitting in front of a computer in an air-conditioned space that shut out reality of all variety.

Slowly, the time one got to sleep and recover for the next day at work also reduced, forcing one to catch up on sleep, and give rest to the tired mind over the weekend. 

So, even though there are enough options in and around the National Capital Region to stay connected with nature, one really didn't manage to do that.

Shridhar's installation and the poem not only connected me with Bhopal, but with a time when life was a little less complex and allowed freedom for simple pleasures like just wandering in the BHEL social forest near Sports Club listening to the soft crunching sound of dry petals under your feet, the smell of raw bamboo, an odd toad croaking somewhere... 

Besides his installations, the canvases are also rich with nature's plush colours — as forests tend to look, freshly bathed after a monsoon shower. Plus, they are an ode to the strand of Abstraction that developed in the vast stretches of Madhya Pradesh, producing one of the greatest masters of Modern Indian art, Syed Haider Raza. 

Shridhar Iyer, "Jatra" series, 2019, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 96 in, 2018.

Most importantly, these canvases are his sub-conscious ode to his mentor, Jagdish Swaminathan, the great master of Modern Indian art, under whose tutelage Shridhar acquired his spurs. These canvases are his ode to the new roads he got to travel to discover art in the deepest corners of Madhya Pradesh. After all, the world knows and fetes Gond tribal art and pays heavy sums to buy works by the late Jangarh Singh Shyam only because Swaminathan took pains to reach those villages and bring out the great artists from its milieu for the larger world to see.
That's a long story to be told elsewhere.
Please see my review of Shridhar's solo and other images here, published in www.blouinartinfo.com.

All images: Archana Khare-Ghose 

Kiran Nadar: A Vanguard of Indian Art

Kiran Nadar doesn't need an introduction. So, why now?
Writing for the New York magazines Art+Auction and Modern Painters, both published by Blouin Artinfo Corp, I have come to realise how West-centric and Euro-centric the art world in general is, and that includes art coverage as well.
If there is one big story from the Indian art world that needed to be told to the entire globe, it is Kiran Nadar's work that has totally changed the game for the subcontinent. That's why I did her interview once again (I had first interviewed her for The Times of India in 2012), to take the story of her incredible collection to the global readership.
This interview was published in the March 2019 edition of Art+Auction magazine, and later reproduced on www.blouinartinfo.com.
Please take out some time to read it here: https://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/3577588/kiran-nadar-a-vanguard-of-indian-art
The biggest take away for me from this interview was the first hand encounter I had with some of the most precious works of art from Mrs Nadar's collection at her residence; this interview was conducted at her home.
How amazing it must be to live with such fantastic art works all around!
As the usher opened the door to her sprawling living room, there was an F.N. Souza oil on the left, while a Mrinalini Mukherjee sculpture gazed from the far end of the corridor leading to inner quarters.
On the right wall was a massive M.F. Husain oil and further up was an oil by Manjeet Bawa. From another living room on the right peeped an oil by V.S. Gaitonde while an oversized 'blade butterfly' by Sunil Gawde held my gaze as I settled on the sofa waiting for Mrs Nadar.
I was sitting in awe of the butterfly and its superb positioning — it was stuck on a wall right next to a big glass door leading to the garden, and its wings, made of steel blade, were catching the sunlight filtering through a gently-swaying Gulmohar tree and the glass door, almost as if dancing to a slow, melodious tune. I was mesmerized. And then, Mrs Nadar arrived.
I hope you enjoy reading this interaction.  
Image Courtesy: Kiran Nadar Museum of Art

Indigo Gets A Museum All Its Own, In Ahmedabad 

Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director of Arvind Limited

In January this year, I had the good fortune of visiting the upcoming Indigo Museum in Ahmedabad. It was a fabulous experience because the cross-pollination between creativity and the dye indigo that Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing editor of Arvind Limited (formerly Arvind Mills), is promoting, is spellbinding.

Varieties of indigo dye on display at the launch of the museum

My story on this museum appeared on Blouin Artinfo Corp's flagship website, www.blouinartinfo.com, and also in the March edition of BlouinShop magazine.
Here is the "good-looking" story — it looks good mostly because of the amazing images of indigo-inspired, indigo-integrated art works that form the first exhibition of the museum, whose physical space is coming up soon.
It would be wonderful if you read the story and let me know your thoughts on it.
https://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/3597407/the-many-shades-of-indigo

An untitled work by Alwar Balasubramaniam as part of his "Alchemy" series of works at the Indigo Museum.

In the foreground, an indigo installation by British artist Annie Morris.

"Index" by Tanya Goel, pigment on wall panels, 48 x 96 in (each panel), 2018.

Nibha Sikander, "Nature Construct/ Deconstruct," Indigo-dyed paper, 8.5 x 11.5 each, 2018.

All images © Archana Khare-Ghose