HYDERABAD: Not unsurprisingly contemporary artist Jitish Kallat’s most prolific pieces could act as relevant commentary for some of our most acute global crises. For the recent edition of the Indulge Time Pass the artist and curator who has showcased his work around the world including London’s Tate modern and Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art, tells host Kaveree Bamzai that he is exploring the possibilities of virtual art rooms as a new medium in the current scenario.
Bamzai brings up his 2010 piece Baggage Claim which is almost prophetic, especially as it successfully captures how the migrant crisis has unraveled in the country. “Baggage Claim was painted close to a decade ago and one also feels that it’s often the artwork that tells you the meaning behind itself as the circumstances change around them.
I think it’s been a real call for us to understand that this sort of skin encapsulated organism that we saw ourselves to be, it’s not the real self. Quarantine Day, again, from 2002 seems to play back certain things. When I look at this painting, there’s this heightened force or energy that emerges, and it’s the artwork that’s the commentator or the provocateur. It’s the one that asks questions of you, in a way,” Kallat remarks.
Yesterday the New York Gallery Launched Kallat’s solo Viewing Room exhibition and today Delhi’s Nature Morte launched Viewing Room with Circadian Study drawings and the artist also talked about the emergence of newer virtual facets in the art world. “It’s an interesting development that galleries have thought of virtual spaces as something that can be re-thought and re-energised. I realised that that is a medium in itself, it’s not just a webpage, it’s something that allows you to reflect another dimension of your work, it’s externalised.