NEW DELHI: A live demonstration by a bunch of theatre actors showcasing the blatant human emotions of fear, anxiety, sorrow and excitement, coupled with an art installation made of wet clay is quite a spectacle to watch at the India Art Fair 2014 here.
The sculpture-based performance titled ‘Everything ends and Everything matters’ by the US-based artist Anindita Dutta brought to fore the intriguing mix of art and performance.
The artist says the work is inspired by the impermanence of life and the cycle of life and death.
“My work is a take on life’s impermanence. I have used terracotta clay. I get this clay when I travel to different places. For me the clay symbolizes the various skin types. It works as a metaphor for life and death,” Anindita told PTI.
She added that the idea of roping in professional artists to showcase a live performance was a way to exhibit the human emotion curve.
“I have worked with non-theatre actors before but for this sculpture, I wanted performers who could bring out the emotions that all of us go through during the course of our lives. They had to emote through their body language rather than the facial expressions,” she said.
The artist went in search of her performers at the ‘Bharat Rang Mahotsav’, the annual international theatre festival of the National School of Drama
Anindita says she believes that the student actors Charu, Sundar, Shyam, Gurinder and Ranjit did justice to her installation with their brave performance.
The artist Anindita Dutta said,” I am very impressed with their body of work. I feel all of them brought out the internal emotions and expressed themselves through their bodies.”
“We worked on a whole range of emotions like happiness, shock, fear, sadness, urge to fight and finally hope. It was reminiscent of the usual emotional curve of human beings,” Sundar said amidst the hearty and loud applause his team received at the end of the performance.
A beaming Anindita Dutta also mentioned that she has plans to showcase her next piece of work in China with her favorite mode of ‘wet clay’ but prefers to keep everyone guessing about the content of her next project.
“I have not fully decided but I hope to travel to China. I would be doing something with wet clay again. There won’t be any performances,” she said.
On being prodded further on her chosen theme of life’s instability, the artist who was showcasing her work for the first time at the India Art Fair, said that she believes in the power of art to start a dialogue.
“I am not cynical. I also celebrate the energy of life in the same breadth when I talk about its instability. For me, art has the power to start dialogues. It is not just a medium of pleasure, it can also be a forum wherein you think and question,” Anindita said.
‘Everything ends and Everything matters’ supported by Latitude 28 Art Gallery is amongst the 24 large scale installations, 91 exhibiting booths and thousands of artists who are showcasing their work at the IAF this year. -PTI
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
