Arts and Aesthetics

Object as a Window to a Culture? Aishwarya Walvekar Introduction As centuries go by with time and a civilization and its culture is taken over by the other, syncretize with other or simply live alongside the other; we see various patterns of lifestyle and culture mainly through the remnants like the architecture, sculptures, edicts, texts, etc. An object is produced in a certain time to project one’s ideas and may or may not be in daily use. Each carries its own objectivity and subjectivity. But as we have travelled through the time and cannot go back into the time realms, all we are left with are objects from the past. The objects are reduced to mere things and their interpretations can vary. But more so than ever, rather than living with the abstraction of the past, they may provide us with some insights from our subjective knowledge. The science and technology has provided us with dating systems; so now we can at least know when the object belonged from. According to H...

What does one mean by 'Theatre' and a  'Performance' ?                      Aishwarya Walvekar Abstract We listen that the words ‘theatre’, ‘drama’, ‘performance’ are used very loosely in the day to day life. Most probably without understanding their meanings. Every society, its culture has its own interpretation and connotation of these terms. In India, if somebody creates a ruckus in the middle of something, they are said to be ‘creating a drama’; when literally, the word to be used is ‘performance’. Here, audiences often say that ‘we are going to a theatre to watch a drama’; when actually it should be – ‘we are going to the auditorium to watch a play’. Well! That’s us. Now a days there is an increasing use of the word ‘performance’, which needs to be thought on. A music piece, dance, live art tradition and the list goes on are called performance. Also, due to the boom in technology and the mass me...

Exhibition Review -Aishwarya Walvekar A Man of Words and Strokes Amidst the controversy of Bhupen Khakhar’s works at Tate Modern - You Can’t Please All and The Guardian’s critic Jonathan Jones labelling it as ‘an old-fashioned, second-rate artist’, stands the revealing and potent exhibition of Khakhar’s work at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi. Titled Many Facets of an Artist: Collections from Bhupen Khakhar Estate, the exhibition is a voyage through Khakhar’s works and collections unfolding facets of him being an artist. The exhibition being curated by the National Gallery of Modern Art is fairly put, although lacks originality and experimentation. It unfurls the varied mediums and methods used by the Khakhar, from pencil sketching, ink on paper, watercolor, oil on canvas to etching, linocuts, lithographs, screen prints. Among the installation are sofas painted by him and a paan stall. The exhibition also displays his vivid work on cerami...

Book Review What is Art History? – Mark Roskill Second Edition The idiom, ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’, indeed, ratifies the essence of the discipline of art history. Art history deals with the study of objects of art in several discourses, including historical, social, economic, and political and development at the time the object was realized. An art historian needs to take into consideration all these elements while analyzing an art work before materializing a conclusion. Many works exist without any documentation, attributions, exact dating, etc. and the art historian needs to join all the dots and make a judgment. In such scenarios, it is the art work itself, which resonates a lot of information than any documentation. Thus, the art historian’s role is crucial and at the same time tedious. Mark Roskill in the second edition of his book ‘What is Art History?’ published in September, 1989 by the University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, draws upon the various ro...

Jait Re Jait By Aishwarya Walvekar Abstract “I foresee no possibility of venturing into themes showing a closer view of reality for a long time to come. The public itself will not have it. What it wants is a gun and a girl.”   -   D.W. Griffith Long after the ‘cinema of attractions’ lost its novelty and shine, the Hollywood cinema with its ‘happy endings’ was practiced rigorously to suffice to audience’s entertainment appetite. Romantic comedies, fictions, thrillers, suspense, fairytales were the genres which were much accepted in the society. However, film movements like the Italian Neorealism and French New Wave broke the barriers of such film making practice. India, too, faced repercussions of these movements, which resulted into parallel cinema and the Indian New Wave from 1950s. This paper will talk about a film, ‘Jait Re Jait’, made during this era and analyze the narrative structure of the film, its semiotics and the portrayal of women in the film. ...