Once the official residence of Prince Moazzam Jah, the ruins of Fort Hill Palace at Basheer Bagh have been temporarily revived into a garb of colours as Shrishti Art Gallery is holding 22-day-long art festival, Ramaniyam at its derelict rooms.
The six-acre-property stands old yet proud on the elevation of Naubat Pahad overlooking the expanse of Hussain Sagar Lake and bustling cityscape of Hyderabad. A melange of sculptural works by 83 artists are on display. The sad facade, the palace resembling Trinity College, Cambridge, was once Ritz Hotel and saw a flash of life after two decades. Incidentally, the palace has completed 100 years and also been declared a heritage property this year.
It is quite a juxtaposition of displaying fresh art works in ruins of a palace that have been lying in neglect for decades.
On display are not any fresh paintings but sculptures. Talking more about it, the art curator George Martin PJ explains, “The viewers can see only two dimensions in a painting. Our intention was to give them a taste of 3D. I picked up a lot of young artists who have displayed their opuses. The challenge was not to be conventional.”
Over time societies tend to become dumpyard of rubbish -- be it plain consumerist’s junk or a piece of work that has lost its splendour. No wonder, that Pablo Picasso out of a discarded bicycle made a bull’s head, using the two handles for the animal’s horns. Similarly the sculptures aptly fit into the mould of disposable consumerism. A piece in wood and metal by Vibha Galhotra, is a globe that looked rotten with its layers coming out from the huge craters. The decay is summed up in its orderly disorder. Chaos is complete.As American writer Aldous Huxley has rightly quoted, “And while you people are overconsuming the rest of the world sinks more and more deeply into chronic disaster.” This statement bears witness to Laxma Goud’s work in papier mache of a woman’s head. The rot is clear. The layers of recycled paper denote what the artist is presenting. The droopy eyes in tandem with the sleepy smile depicts that we no longer live life, we consume it.
That’s how Lakshmi Nambiar the director of the art gallery chose a decaying derelict palace. Her choice hinges between escape and confinement of consumerism. Standing amid pillars peeling off their years of neglect she says, “I was looking for alternate options. I went to old mills, decaying houses, abandoned palaces. Then I found Hill Fort Palace. It just fit in.” A juxtaposition she surely found that stands as witness to decay and creation in its premises as the exhibition progresses.
The large palatial rooms provide a contrast to some of the colourful opuses. But their decaying ceilings find their mirrored images in the art-works displayed under their glare. The intertwined theme of decay and consumption is completed. And disposability of a culture is ripped open which runs on impulse and ‘trends’. The works speak to the viewers with very faint hints of optimism that flashes and vanishes.
For example, there is 108 beads by Bose Krishnamachari that holds the fluidity of life even amidst mounds of decaying leaves, clusters of withered flowers and broken rocks. It flows. Such optimistic vision is rare, but it’s there even when the burden of disposability is becoming humongous for the present society to carry. The exhibition is on till November 22.
New Dimensions of Art
The ongoing exhibition, New Utterances – Art of a Dynamic Generation continuing at Daira Centre for Arts and Culture features art works by various artists. The show is on till
November 15. The theme revolves around the new expressions by the new artists. Some of the artists names are: Aasha Radhika, Afza Tamkanat, Sweta Chandra, Priti Samyukta, Arpita Reddy, Nagesh Goud, Tailor Srinivas and others. The paintings range from the village lives of Telangana folks, to musings of an artist during her college days. Some artists like Afza Tamkanat did self portraits. Her artwork features little sparrows perched on her head. The work is based on Hyderabadi song sung for little children. Her other works featured rebellious modes of women in burqa moving in alleys of Hyderabad. Artist Sweta Chandra’s works focused on her deep thoughts while she was still in college pursuing her art studies. One of her paintings reflected shadow of the chair. Sweta says, “It’s very much like Vincent Van Gogh’s chair. I wanted to show that even a chair can be focus of sub conscious. I have used very light and faded shades of white to represent my thoughts.”