CONTEMPORARY ARTIST JITISH KALLAT PRESENTS PROVOCATIVE
PUBLIC NOTICE 3 ON THE ART INSTITUTE'S GRAND
STAIRCASE
Public Notice
3
on View September 11, 2010 through January 2, 2011
First Major
Presentation of Kallat's Work in U.S. Museum
This fall, acclaimed
contemporary artist Jitish Kallat turns
the landmark Art Institute Grand Staircase into a meditation on religious
tolerance, drawing on the museum's own history in concert with the most
devastating terrorist attack on American soil. Public Notice
3
, a site-specific installation, brings together two key historical
moments: the first Parliament of the World's Religions, opening on September 11,
1893, in what is now the museum's Fullerton Hall, and the terrorist attacks on
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 108 years later, on that very date.
Public Notice 3--the first major
presentation of Kallat's work in an American museum--will be on view September 11, 2010 through January 2,
2011.
The Art Institute of Chicago has long held a unique
historical connection with India. In 1893, during the World's Columbian
Exposition, the museum's building served as the site of one of the most
important gatherings in the history of modern religion, the first World's
Parliament of Religions. One of the opening speakers was a young Hindu monk from
India, Swami Vivekananda, who stunned and enthralled the audience of 7,000 with
an address that opened one of the first dialogues between Eastern and Western
traditions and, importantly, argued passionately for universalism and religious
tolerance. Exactly 108 years before the attacks in New York City and Washington,
DC, Swami
Vivekananda
called for an end to all "bigotry and fanaticism" and pleaded for brotherhood
across all faiths, a speech that was met with a standing ovation and was
heralded by journalists as one of the pivotal moments of the Exposition. (Even
today, the stretch of Michigan Avenue in front of the Art Institute is the
honorary "Swami Vivekananda Way.")
Kallat has chosen this historical
event as the basis and site for his monumental installation. For Public Notice
3
, Kallat will convert the complete text of Vivekananda's inspiring speech
into LED displays on each of the 118 risers of the museum's Woman's Board Grand
Staircase, which is itself adjacent to what is now Fullerton Hall, where
Vivekananda made his original presentation. Drawing attention to the great chasm
between this plea for tolerance of 1893 and the very different events of
September 11, 2001, the text of the speech will be displayed in the five colors
of the United States' Department of Homeland Security alert system--red, orange,
yellow, blue, and green.
This historical coincidence--and the fact that
the speech was delivered at the earliest attempt to create a global dialogue of
faiths--heightens the potency of Vivekananda's persuasive words. The resulting
work, Public Notice 3, creates a
trenchant commentary on the evolution, or devolution, of religious tolerance
across the 20th and 21st centuries. The installation will serve not as a passive
commemorative act but rather as an actively contemplative space.
Public Notice 3 draws on Kallat's earlier
works, Public Notice and
Public Notice 2, which also converted
historic texts into large-scale installations. In Public Notice (2003), Kallat converted the text of Jawaharlal
Nehru's speech on the eve of Indian independence on August 15, 1947, into
mutable rubber cement letters, which were then melted, burned, and installed
against a reflective surface, lending the speech itself a violent, refractory
cast. For Public Notice
2
(2008), Kallat recreated Mahatma Gandhi's 1930 speech before the
historic march protesting the British salt tax--which essentially outlined a
manifesto for Indian independence on the foundation of civil disobedience--into
4500 fiberglass letters that appear to be bones. Public Notice 2 was recently one of the centerpieces of the
Saatchi gift of contemporary art to the British nation.
Documenting the
Art Institute's undertaking of Public Notice
3
will be a full-color, 80-page book that will be the first full-scale
exploration of Jitish Kallat's work published by a North American institution.
The contents will include an article by curator Madhuvanti Ghose that
contextualizes Public Notice 3 within
the space of the museum; an essay by Shaheen Merali on Kallat's oeuvre that
situates it within an international context, focusing on key themes and works;
extensive images of Public Notice
3
; a conversation with the artist and scholars, including Art Institute
director James Cuno, Homi Bhabha (Harvard), Jeremy Strick, Geeta Kapur, James
Rondeau (AIC), and Madhu Ghose (AIC); and a complete bibliography and exhibition
history. This soft cover catalogue will be available September 2010 at the
Museum Shop for $18.95.
About the artist
Jitish Kallat (b. 1974) is one of the
most exciting and dynamic Asian artists to have received international
recognition in recent years. Working across a variety of media including
painting, sculpture, photography, and installation, his work reflects a deep
involvement with the city of his birth (Mumbai) and derives much of its visual
language from his immediate urban environment. Kallat has been included in such
important museum exhibitions as Thermocline of
Art--New Asian Waves at the ZKM Museum in Karlsruhe (2007) and Century
City
at Tate Modern in London (2001). Recent solo exhibitions have taken
place in galleries in Beijing, London, and Mumbai. Kallat's work is held in a
number of important public and private collections internationally including the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Saatchi collection recently gifted
to the British nation; the New Art Gallery Walsall; and Birmingham Museums and
Art Gallery. Public Notice 3 is the
first major solo presentation of an Indian contemporary artist in a leading
American museum.
Public Notice
3
is curated by Madhuvanti Ghose, the Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian,
Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Islamic Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Lead individual sponsorship for the exhibition is generously provided by the
Burger Collection, Hong Kong. Lead foundation sponsorship for the exhibition is
generously provided by an anonymous fund at the Boston Foundation and the
Efroymson Family Fund, a CICF Fund. Individual co-sponsorship for the exhibition
is provided by Charles and Kathleen Harper. Additional support for the
exhibition is provided by Abby O'Neil and Carroll Joynes, Nancy K. and Stuart J.
Murphy, and Betty and Richard Seid.
#
# # #
Web: www.artinstituteofchicago.org Twitter: @artinstitutechi Become a Facebook fan
MUSEUM HOURS 10:30 am-5:00 pm Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday
10:30 am-8:00 pm Thursday, Friday
10:00 am-5:00 pm
Saturday, Sunday
TARGET FREE THURSDAY
EVENINGS AFTER 5:00 pm
FREE FEBRUARY 1 TO 28 Closed
Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.
ADMISSION Adults $18.00
Includes all special exhibitions
Children 14 and over, students, and seniors
$12.00 Includes all special exhibitions
Chicago residents receive a $2.00
discount with proof of residency
Children under 14 always free
Members
always free
Free
Evenings are free to all. City of Chicago residents with Chicago
Public
Library cards can borrow a "Museum Passport" card from any
library
branch for free general admission to the nine members of Museums in
the
Park, including the Art Institute of Chicago.
:
artsnews@absolutearts.com
This email was sent
by: Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Ave.
Chicago, IL 60603 USA
Discover over 150,000 works of contemporary art. Search by medium, subject matter, price and theme... research over 200,000 works by over 22,000 masters in the indepth art history section. Browse through new Art Blogs. Use our advanced artwork search interface.
Call for Artists, Premiere Portfolio sign-up for your Free Portfolio or create an Artist Portfolio today and sell your art at the marketplace for contemporary Art! Start a Gallery Site to exclusively showcase your gallery. Keep track of contemporary art with your free MYabsolutearts account.
Copyright 1995-2013. World Wide Arts Resources Corporation. All rights reserved