CHENNAI: Glass, that ubiquitous item that serves a variety of purposes from storage to protection from the elements and helping us see the world better, also becomes a medium for artistic expression in the hands of five artists. Organised in collaboration with the International Foundation for the Arts through their Madras Art Weekend initiative, Tempered: Poetry in Glass will go on display at The Gallery at InKo Centre today.
Shining light on glass
Curated by Kristine Michael, ceramic artist and designer based in Delhi, the exhibition brings together artists from some of India’s artistically vibrant cities Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata and Shantiniketan. An alumni of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Kristine aims to throw light on the various methods through which glass can be employed to make art.
Though glass serves a variety of functional uses in our world, people in India are generally unaware of what goes into the actual process of glass-making, be it blowing, casting, fusing or molding. The works presented at the InKo Centre, she says, brings together diverse practices through which glass is made and how it can go beyond functionality and lend itself to the whims of the artist.
“Glass is an under-represented art medium in India,” said Kristine, “but there is exciting contemporary work being done in the past few years. The exhibition explores five contemporary Indian artists’ aesthetic language in glass. This is a physical exhibition of a virtual one held during Covid earlier this year, that had both Indian and Korean glass artists.”
Accomplished artists
The participating artists include Kolkata-based Srila Mookherjee, who has trained at the Stern Glass Ltd London and worked with London-based artists Annette Meech, David Taylor, Christopher Williams and Fleur Tookey at The Glasshouse, and has opened Aakriti Studio, Kolkata’s first hot glass studio. Sisir Sahana from Shantiniketan, trained in stained glass at St. Martin’s College of Art & Design, London, and participant in a fellowship program at the Creative Glass Centre of America, USA, and the Delhi’s Atul Bakshi who is renowned for his innovative ways of working with glass, are some of the other artists who will be on display.
The show will remain on display until January 7, 2023. Today, artists Srila Mookherjee, Harsh Nowlakha and Ashwini Pai Bahadur of Glass Makers Club, Delhi, will deliver a talk at 7 pm.
Info Box
Show: Tempered: Poetry in Glass
Venue: The Gallery, InKo Centre
Duration: Till January 7, 2023
Artists: Atul Bakshi, Delhi
Harsh Vardhan Nowlakha, Bengaluru
Pallavi Chandra & Deeksha Saini, Delhi
Sisir Sahana, Shantiniketan, Srila Mookherjee, Kolkata