ART AFFAIR
Going to an art exhibition launch can make you go through all sorts of experiences. Especially if you are an artist. You see artists who come just can’t help being analytical on the art pieces. You will find artists pondering and discussing about the way the media was used or the texture created. And then you will find artists who will be discussing about the muse and motif, whether it was strong, too strong, too mediocre or too light. You will meet happy artists, who are happy just to be there. You will meet real happy artists who got to sit on the big sofa along with the podium with the chief guest and got to make a speech. You will meet grumpy artists who wanted to sit on the big sofa and thought “was supposed” to sit on the big sofa and had come with a speech prepared but was not invited. You will meet artists who love to talk whether he has an audience or not. You will enjoy their company initially but after meeting them in a couple of art shows, you end up running away!
You will meet artists who come all the way to the art show despite the traffic jam, get inside, manufacture a scowling face, brisk through art pieces, gulp down the wine (or tea) and rush out. “It’s not my kinda thing,” you will hear him/her say on the door, going out. You will also meet some artists avoiding other artists. You will actually realize that an artist didn’t come because he/she thought some other artist was also coming. And the “other” artist didn’t come because he/she thought the former was coming. So both were absent !
It is rather sad to realize that there is some hatred in the art scenario. Isn’t any genre or form of art supposed to get people together? Shouldn’t art be but joy in the first place? How can we, the artists, spread joy when we hate each other?
And then the speeches! If you have the political leaders involved as the chief guests, they always start off , “I cant speak about art because I don’t know anything about art.” But trust me, they will speak anyways, for an hour or so till everyone gets exhausted….so exhausted that walking to the door of the gallery for the inauguration becomes a strenuous ordeal for all. Everyone who comes to the podium for a speech seems to love to talk and so they ramble on and on right from Fauvism to post modernism, most of the time going around the mulberry bush. Making a speech is an art on its own. You need to be prepared for it. You can’t afford to make ad-hoc speeches. It’s not your show. The show belongs to the artist who spent months or years working on the exhibition. You can’t afford to think you have so much authority that you can go there and make lengthy boring speeches at the cost of the exhibition. I think it’s perfectly alright to write speeches and read them. That way you can inculcate and balance intellect, wisdom and humour.
With so many artists and art happenings, I think we also need to be careful planners on how we want to go about organizing them. Less is more. I don’t think we need to have too many speakers in art shows. One or two good speakers would suffice. (I think a strict time discipline should be maintained.) And furthermore I believe any form of art, if talked about too much, loses its essence. Art should be felt.
As for the audience of the exhibition, I think we need to go to the art exhibitions with an open mind. Every artist has his/her own perspective to art. For an abstract artist, its freedom and spontaneity that’s important. For a conceptual artist, it’s the concept. A traditional artist enjoys the traditional styles. There are artists who enjoy creating super-realism. I believe when we go to an art-exhibition we need to see the works of the artist via their perspective. We need to enjoy the artistic freedom of the abstractionists, we need to celebrate the strong concepts of the conceptualists, and yet enjoy the fact that the super-realistic took so much pain to create what he did.
Art is going big in Nepal. And I am so glad to be a part of it !
Chirag Bangdel
3-January-2011
