3D art and more

Tricky strangeness, intriguing themes, stylish manners, crazy, contemplative and magical… Artworks at Art Stack 2010 are personal interpretations and fresh pictures of the way the 11 artists see the world. Art Stack 2010 is a multi-media art exhibition ongoing at Design Stack in Andheri. The studio was founded by Priyanka Bhasin and Anoop Patnaik. Art Stack began in 2008 as an informal art show, where four artists displayed artworks for their friends and family to view and buy. “The following year we made it a little more formal, planned it, the guest list became longer and we invited art lovers outside of a gallery environment,” says Bhasin. The event has now turned annual and will only get bigger.

This year, a number of artists from India and abroad were invited. The resulting exhibition testifies the outpour of fresh and diverse art practices in the country. The show features painting, design, photography, print, films, ceramics and installations.

Platform for all
So, on what basis were the artworks selected? Bhasin explains, “It’s a platform for people from different fields and the idea is to break out of the usual and come up with something completely new.” Patnaik adds, “It’s more of multi-media contemporary art.” Bhasin stresses on the fact that this is not a curated show. Among the artists are Pallavi Arora, Ruchi Bakshi, Priyanka Bhasin, Shirley Bhatnagar, Meghana Bisineer, Jane Cheadle, Jessica Durwald, Gurika Mehta, Prashant Miranda, Anoop Patnaik and Roy Verghese. Bhasin feels there’s still a dearth of artists in this country. “In Canada, there is a day in May, when the entire city becomes an art show. We believe that everyone is an artist and that art is a natural activity. The idea of art needs to be stripped off of all the hullabaloo around it.” In the coming years, Patnaik and Bhasin plan to hold more such shows that may also be themed.

Wall to wall
Among the artworks, Berlin-based Jessica Durwald has showcased video installations. These are animated films of her charcoal drawings on walls. London-based Jane Cheadle is showing two films. In one, she has created water painting on walls and played with light, whereas the other, titled Shark, has a shark that the artist created by chopping off the wooden panelling in her studio. Both the artists create art on walls and use the stop motion animation technique.

Picture it
Pallavi Arora uses the medium of acrylic pen and ink on paper to portray abstract funny-looking human characters, in bright colours Priyanka Bhasin has created work that needs to be viewed through 3D glasses. Apart from exploring nostalgia through a portrait of herself in the environment she grew up in, she has tried to explore ways to bring 3D into 2D spaces in a tryptich (three paneled). Anoop Patnaik displays two tryptichs. “A dream sequence in three frames, it’s a rotating triptych, so one can keep turning each triangular surface to form various combinations of images to their liking or according to what they want to see,” says Patnaik.

Ruchi Bakshi plays with magnifying glasses in her two paintings. Magical in character, Bakshi creates an upside down world where fishes would fly in sky. “My work is absurd. It’s a comment but not a serious one. It’s my view of the world, taking a dig at things, society, telling a complex story with simple forms,” explains Bakshi, who merges objects with human bodies. After graduating from NID, eight years back, Bakshi has been making films. She has a collection of hundreds of doodling books, she makes intuitively, recording daily emotions. On a closer look, there’s lots to observe and interpret at Art Stack.