Public Art Project displays as part of Homepage 2016
Cultural Re-imaginations: Experiments in Creative Placemaking
Public art project display by Indrani Baruah
Cultural Re-imaginations brought ideas in vernacular architecture, visual arts and crafts together to launch a series of community-based public art initiatives in the public realm. The project utilized the River Brahmaputra, its riverfront and the urban spaces of Guwahati, Assam, as sites for experiments in creative placemaking. The three consecutive stages of the projects explored ideas in placemaking and sustainability by utilizing local building traditions, craftsmanship in basketry and weaving and attempted to create social spaces by galvanizing the community.
The project was initiated and developed by Indrani Baruah over three stages, of which Stage 3 was supported by FICA’s Public Art Grant 2013. The project display will trace the entire life of the project with emphasis on its multi-faceted approaches to creative placemaking, creating a platform for hybrid initiatives focusing on the interface of art, environment, culture and vernacular crafts.
Indrani Baruah is an architect, visual artist and cultural researcher who practice is at the intersection of architecture, visual arts and cultural studies. She completed her formal training in architecture from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and later from School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of Oregon. She went on to doing the U.C. Berkeley Programs in Art; and Painting and Art History from Merritt College, Oakland, California. Her participation in exhibitions include Berkeley Arts Center, California (2010), Gensler, San Francisco, California (2010), Venice Biennale of Architecture, 2012: 13th Annual International Architectural Exhibition; Common Ground and INSERT 2014, IGNCA, New Delhi exhibition curated by Raqs Media Collective titled New Models on Common Ground: Re-imagining the Question of Cultural Infrastructure. She has been a recent speaker at the TEDx India series. Indrani received the Extending Arts Practice Grant from India Foundation for the Arts in 2012 and the FICA Public Art Grant in 2013. Her work has been published in IASTE, University of California, Berkeley, Society of Architectural Historians and Art and Deal.
शोर : SHORE
Public art project display by Mrugen Rathod
शोर reads as a homonym, meaning both Noise and its reference to the sea (sea shore in this context). In this project Mrugen intiated collaborative endeavours that brought together the traditional artists of Odisha to create a dialogue around the impending degeneration of natural resources and the arts in the state; using both to actively create a substantial stand. Located across various towns in Odisha, the project engaged with the intricacies beyond the apparent environmental / ecological reading looking at finer concerns of the contemporaneous situation of traditional art / handicrafts, its dynamics in a consumerist / capitalist market, politics of propaganda, disparity in sustenance measures, vigil of the society, government policies and law amongst other concerns. The display will include narratives, objects and texts that came out of collaborative efforts between the various members of this project, and attempt to extend certain dialogues into the gallery space.
Mrugen Rathod completed his BVA and MVA from the Faculty of Fine Arts, MS University of Baroda. In his practice he chooses to merge elements from his immediate environment to make works which are a gesture of giving back to nature. With a keen engagement on place/space and ecology Rathod’s work is about engaging in a dialogue with our fragile environment. He has participated in various group shows such as New Documents curated by Rahul Bhattacharya, New Delhi in 2011; Monster’s Factory at Tank, Diesel exhibiting space, Fort, Mumbai in 2014; let US face the future (solo) at Time Equities Inc. as part of the Art-in-Buildings program, Manhattan, New York in 2012. He has developed work in several residencies including Sandarbh, Rajasthan, 2011; Kashi Art Residency, Kochi, 2011; Cultural Residency by Art and Deal Magazine at Puri, Odisha, 2011; Art OMI, New York, 2012; Space 118, Mumbai; S. N. Sultan Art Residency in Bangladesh, 2013; Vijayanagar Residency at JSW, Hampi, 2014; Yatoo International at South Korea, 2015; and GNAP (Global Nomadic Art Project), Gujarat, 2015. He received the FICA Public Art Grant 2014 for his project SHORE in Odisha, for which he collaborated with Utsha Foundation for Contemporary Art, Bhubaneswar.