Umar Nizar The graffiti superstar Banksy known for his politically charged work, has recently been playing it safe by making animal murals in the city of London, which is interesting in the light of the recent right wing hooliganism and rioting in the UK. Multiculturalism in the UK is a sham, and so is the …
Brahmanical unconscious and contemporary art
Umar Nizar There is a poignant moment in the i-flux edition brought out by Sage publications, in which the art work titled `Hallelujah Fallujah’ by Anita Dube is `misprinted’ as `Hallelujah Hallelujah’. This is the apotheosis of contemporary art, where a truly radical artistic ploy has been `unconsciously’ or `unintentionally’ reduced to an onomastic caricature with …
`Raqs Media Collective’: The caste pursuit of hyper cool
Umar Nizar Quality vs energy is the major thesis of the Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn who held daily workshops at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2018. The ‘meritocratic’ pretensions of third world elite are brutally dispelled by his radical stance. It is ironical that there are ‘radical’ collectives foisting rotten idealism, in the guise of …
Bahujan Art Festival TISS 2018
Bahujan Art Festival is an initiative to give platform to the artists from the marginal Bahujan community, to express their Challenges, Struggles and Success. This Video is a documentation of the event which happened in the TISS Mumbai Campus on 16th of December. Video Documentation: Nikhil Latagajanan. {youtube}Dsuz7nG3CmI{/youtube} ~~~ [Via Somnath Waghamare]
भारतीय शास्त्रीय कलाएं और सामाजिक सरोकार
संजय जोठे (Sanjay Jothe) भारतीय कलाकारों, खिलाड़ियों, गायकों नृत्यकारों के वक्तव्य बहुत निराश करते हैं। उनके वक्तव्यों में आम भारतीय मजदूर या किसान या गरीब के सामाजिक सरोकार एकदम से गायब हैं। उन्होंने कला को व्यक्तिगत मोक्ष या अलौकिक आनन्द की जिन शब्दावलियों में गूंथा है उसमें फसकर कला और कलात्मक अभव्यक्तियाँ भी इस …
Dignity of the Dead and Living Bahujan cannot be Separate
Pinak Banik Continued from Part 1 The purpose of the “Story of Nangeli” appearing on Facebook in Orijit Sen’s own words is:“This comics story is dedicated to Rohith Vemula (1989-2016), who, like Nangeli, chose death over a life of indignity.“ Tribute to …
From Breast Tax to Brahminical Stripping in Comics: Orijit Sen and Brahmin Sadomasochism
Pinak Banik “Only dead dalits make excellent dalits.Only dead dalits become excellent sites where revolutionary fantasies blossom!” ~ Anoop Kumar The context for this article centers around the selective fetishising of Dalit Bahujan whose deaths were ‘spectacles’ and hence “become excellent sites where revolutionary fantasies blossom”. This comes served with obscene explicitism via White …
Art for Social Justice
Dr. Sunil Abhiman Awachar [Recently, the painting exhibition of Dalit artist/painter Dr. Sunil Abhiman Awachar was held in February 2016 at the ‘International Conference on Voices of the Oppressed and the Marginalised’ in Mehsana, Gujarat. It was organised by the Social Justice Department, Government of Gujarat, and ICSSR, New Delhi. The title of his …
Art and Ambedkarism: A Conversation with Sambhaji Bhagat
Yogesh Maitreya Somewhere in 2012, back in Nagpur, I had read an article on Sambhaji Bhagat, poet, balladeer and a rebellious playwright from Maharashtra. He is also a vigorous Ambedkarite activist, in his own words, “main Babasaheb ka baccha hu” (‘I am the descendent of Babasaheb’). While living in Nagpur I had hardly heard of …