[-empyre-] Welcome to empyre Week 4:Rethinking Curatorial Options: Globally

Tue May 1 03:18:28 EST 2012

Hi Tim,

Thanks for inviting me to speak share some of my curatorial projects.
I was surprised to find the website of the exhibition at Cornell from
2004. Rites/Rights/Rewrites: Women’s Video Art from India.
http://web.archive.org/web/20091027102616/http://www.geocities.com/indianartexhibit/pressrelease.html

I have always been engaged with the issues of women, art and politics
in relation with technology. I am continued on this trajectory and
preparing for an exhibition. However, being back after an absence of
nearly seven years in India did leave a lot of catching up to do. I
thought about the legacy of the gallery, its relationship with the
artist and the influence of Lakeeren( and myself as a curator) on the
art they produced. I decided to historicize my past in an exhibition
The Other Indian Story: Retrospecting Lakeeren Art gallery.
http://issuu.com/lakeeren/docs/the_other_indian_story_artist_catalogue.
I invited artists to revisit earlier work from my exhibitions
contemplating it with their current practice.

Furthermore, as I stated yesterday, the art market has played a
significant role in the production of art and the projects in the
Indian context. The lack of public spaces/ museums re-orients the art
scene to emerge from the gallery space, thereby several of the
experimental and ambitious new media projects are realized outside
India. However a National level goverment Institution did invite me to
curate their collection in Delhi, I instead used this opportunity to
critique the lack of public institutions in India.
http://issuu.com/lakeerengallery/docs/against_all_odds_final_1

For me curating in my gallery and the public realm is not in
contradiction, as my practice emerges from an impetus to historicize
given the urgent need to write a new history of Indian art.

http://issuu.com/lakeerengallery/docs/punctum_1
http://issuu.com/lakeerengallery/docs/punctum_ii_catalog?mode=window&pageNumber=1

Do check my blog http://lakeeren.tumblr.com/ or my website
www.lakeerengallery.com for more information on my shows.

Look forward to reading reviews and more feedback on Being Singular
Plural. I am particularly interested to follow the work of Sonal Jain
and Mriganka Madhukaillya and would encourage viewers to visit their
website. http://www.periferry.in/
http://www.desiremachinecollective.net/

I will be curating a large survey show of Indian art for the Queens
Museum, in 2014 with a symposium in Fall in NYU ... hope to meet some
of you in NYC.

Cheers and warm regards,
Arshiya

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 9:03 AM, Timothy Conway Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu> wrote:
> Hi, Arshiya,
>
> It's so wonderful to hear your voice on the -empyre- soft-skinned space.  I'm wondering if I could invite you to say a little more about your curatorial projects and philosophy in relation to your stimulating posts.
>
> I haven't yet gotten down to see the Being Singular Plural show but was fascinated by a talk by its curator, Sandhini Poddar, that brought the work of the show directly into dialogue with the Western philosophical tradition (philosophers such as Jean-Luc Nancy and Gilles Deleuze) in a tremendously exciting way that marshalled the art works to inform and dialogue with the philosophical references, in contrast to the predictable other way around.  Here the works and their specificities as being singular plural opened up new representational frameworks for thinking art.  So glad that you mentioned this show and hope that our subscribers are able to check out the website.
>
> In the short time left to us for this month, could you send us links to some of your exhibitions in Mumbai and say a little bit more about your curatorial frameworks?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Tim
>
> Director, Society for the Humanities
> Curator, Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art
> Professor of Comparative Literature and English
> A. D. White House
> Cornell University
> Ithaca, New York. 14853
> ________________________________________
> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Lakeeren Gallery [lakeeren at lakeerengallery.com]
> Sent: Sunday, April 29, 2012 2:35 PM
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Welcome to empyre Week 4:Rethinking Curatorial Options: Globally
>
> Dear All,
>
> Want to respond to many strands that are taking place here.
> First, Rene congrats on your upcoming show at the Freud’s museums …it
> is such an factinating museum and I can imagine your interest to show
> there. All the best !
>
> Second, not a fan of curatorial programs…I went to Goldsmiths College
> 2000, I can’t believe you can learn curating from a course( sorry its
> my own take on it). Also  it is very encouraging to believe that
> “curatorial programs will play a major role in encouraging future
> boundary crossings.” A decade ago it was difficult to speak about
> Indian art in class without people loosing interest. I think a lot
> acceptibility of art today is linked to the market. It seems that
> Chinese and Indian art have gained a new respectibility since their
> economies are growing. Would love to know your thoughts on this…
>
> Third, I think Christiane point about seeing art with “a distinctly
> different aesthetic language ” is significant.  I agree this is
> necessary on all counts including the need for more “international
> curatorial voices.” But when will we stop this tokenism of the “usual
> suspect” list of artist and curators. Can we truly curate another
> culture without a deep-ened research or not employing Spivak’s term “
> native –informant.” I have been thinking about this a lot..especially
> in the Indian case we have  international curators who curate the same
> artists repeately…outline the same issues globalization…etc producing
> similar looking show.
>
> I am currently working towards a large exhibtiion on New media from
> India … I wondered if anyone saw the exhibit at Guggenheim, NYC Being
> Singular Plural that features 7 Indian artist. Would love to know your
> thoughts..
>
> http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/4437-beingsingularplural
>
> More to follow..
> Arshiya
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 29, 2012 at 7:52 PM, jonCates <joncates at gmail.com> wrote:
>> its good to read these accounts of these hystories && i hopes yawl + others
>> will propose && present these @ RE:NEW, the upcoming Media Art Histories
>> conference hosted by RIXC to be held in Riga, Latvia:
>> http://www.mediaarthistory.org/renew
>>
>> im wondering outloud also about, as Christiane writes, the global / regional
>> / local in relation to imperialisms, colonial projects, the flows of global
>> capital in globalized hypercapitalism, etc... && questions of scale. in
>> other words, on what scales can these issues bue mobilized by artists,
>> curators + artists/curators?
>>
>> my own response has been to move towards && maintain small scales (1), to
>> operate in as ARAM writes, super-niches (2) + out of the way places (3), not
>> unlike Nate's Apache Projects project. but then to be able to translate
>> between these small scale operations && other worlds, such as the academic
>> worlds i work in (4)
>>
>> + following Elvira Dyangani Ose's questions... ARAM's SPEED SHOW platform /
>> project activates the art of the Internet-cafe as a specific && specifically
>> globalized place && activates Internet-cafes w/ art of the Internet, also a
>> specific && specifically globalized space
>>
>> another project which bears these issues out, but differently, + has been
>> invoked in this conversation is Rafael Rosenthal's initiation of the BYOB
>> platform / project: http://www.byobworldwide.com
>> which i have been involved in versions of + have mobilized critiques of
>> through my participation:
>> http://systemsapproach.tumblr.com/post/11911744459/byob-chicago-joncates-digital-arts-collector
>>
>> i would be vry curious / interested in others' perspectives on how these
>> projects / platforms, either those proposed +/or those realized, make real
>> various aspects of New Media Art in which we are "Rethinking Curatorial
>> Options: Globally" online && AFK...
>>
>> // jonCates
>> http://systemsapproach.net
>>
>> 1. PROPOSAL FOR A MESHWORK OF R4WB1T5 MICRO.FESTS - Amanda Gutierrez,
>> jon.satrom and jonCates (2006)
>> http://www.scribd.com/doc/4057921/PROPOSAL-FOR-A-MESHWORK-OF-R4WB1T5-MICROFESTS
>> 2. SPEED SHOW vol.4: ’Super Niche’ - ARAM Bartholl (2010)
>> http://speedshow.net/speed-show-vol-4-super-niche/
>> 3. Entropic elasticity: Critical Glitch Artware & the demoscene - Rosa
>> Menkman (2010)
>> http://www.furtherfield.org/reviews/entropic-elasticity-critical-glitch-artware-demoscene
>> 4. Teaching without Philosophy - jonCates (2009 revision)
>> http://systemsapproach.net/TEACHPHIL.html
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>
> --
> L AK E E R E N
> 6/18, Grants Blg, 2nd Floor, Opposite Basilico Restaurant, Arthur
> Bunder Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400005. T:  + 91-22 65224179.
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

-- 
L AK E E R E N
6/18, Grants Blg, 2nd Floor, Opposite Basilico Restaurant, Arthur
Bunder Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400005. T:  + 91-22 65224179.