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GAGAWAKA: Making Strange
by Vivan Sundaram
Exhibition opening: Dec. 21, 2011 (6pm)
On view till 27th December,11am to 7 pm
Venue: Rabindra Bhavan Gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi, 35 Feroze Shah Road, New Delhi
*Gagawaka: Making Strange* is a cross-over exhibition of art with fashion. It includes forty-five provocative sculptural garments, based on the concept of the 'ready-made' or 'found-object'. The garments use an extraordinary range of materials and objects of daily and/ or domestic use like paper-cups, kitchen cleaners; medical & personal hygiene like under-wear, sanitary napkins, and recycled material like rubber tubes. Vivan Sundaram experiments with the manner in which these recognizable items are transformed, to be read in completely different contexts that delight and surprise the viewer. They are playful, erotic, refined, elegant as well as exaggerated, surrealist and baroque. They play off an aesthetic of simplicity and also of excess. With *GAGAWAKA: Making Strange*, Vivan Sundaram makes oblique references to those designers who have crossed over to make statements that refer to art, but very much sees himself as an artist, posing questions about how we re-define what art is and where can fashion move, at moments outside its functional use, to say something about the world we live in, its madness and poetry. Vivan Sundaram has been working on this project for almost three years. He acknowledges the collaboration of young designer, Pratima Pandey, who along with some very talented ex-graduates from NIFT, have worked on detailing, completion and fittings of the garments.
*Vivan Sundaram*
born 1943, Simla. Studied painting in M.S. University,Baroda and The Slade School of Fine Art, London in the 1960's. Since 1990 he has turned to making artworks as sculpture, installation, photography and video.
He has exhibited in the Biennial's of Sydney (2008), Seville (2006), Taipei(2006), Sharjah(2005), Shanghai(2004), Havana(1997), Johannesburg(1997), Kwangju(1997), Asia-Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery(1996).
Has participated in group shows in London (Tate Modern, 2001), New York (International Centre for Photography, 2008, Queens Museum, 2005), Paris (galerie de jour, 2002), Tokyo (Mori Museum, 2008, Japan Foundation, 1998), Munich (Haus der Kunst, 2006), Vienna (Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation, 2006), Singapore (Asian Civilizations Museum, 2003), Oslo (Henie Ostad Kunstsenter, 2002) , Lisbon (Centro Cultural de Belam, 2007, O Museu/Culterguest, 2004), Karlsruhe ( ZKM, 2007), Berne (Kunst Museum, 2007), Milan ( Hangar Bicocca, Spazio Oberdan, 2007), Chicago (Chicago Cultural Centre, 2007), Perth (Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2004), Berlin (Haus der Kulteren Welt, 2003), Graz (Grazer Kunstveren, 2002), Rotterdam (Museum Boijamns van Beuningen, 2001), Budapest (Ernst Museum, 2001).
He has had solo shows in many cities of India as well as in New York, London, Paris, Toronto, Montreal and Copenhagen.
He has curated many exhibitions as well as organized a number of artist workshops, both national and international. Vivan Sundaram lives in Delhi and is married to the art writer Geeta Kapur.
For further information, please contact:
Kanika Anand at kanikaanand24@gmail.com, 9810183427 or Shweta Bhanot at artshweta@gmail.com, 9818423270
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