Noa Eshkol to Arp­ita Akhanda: India Art Fair back with more vibrant canvas

The fair is the country's biggest exhibition of contemporary and modern art from South Asia

The human movement – complex, fluid and functional – was a passion and the subject of exploration for Israeli dancer-choreographer Noa Eshkol. The Chamber Dance Group, which she founded in 1954 in Tel Aviv, would perform not to music but only to the steady pulse of the metronome, celebrating the pure movement of the human body. But when the 1973 Arab–Israeli War disrupted those performances, the artist headed out on another journey of creativity and expression – piecing together discarded fabrics as though they were paint to create vibrant, emotive “wall carpets”.

Noa Eshkol created some 750 wall carpets until her death in 2007. A selection of these artworks will now be shown by Berlin-based galley, neugerriemschneider, in India for the first time at the four-day India Art Fair that begins on April 28.

A performance by the Noa Eshkol Chamber Dance Group at an exhibition opening at Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, , 2016. Courtesy: Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation, Holon, Israel, and Neugerriemschneider, Berlin

The fair, the country’s biggest exhibition of contemporary and modern art from South Asia, was meant to return after a year’s gap in February this year but was put off because of the Omicron wave. It is back now, showcasing 77 exhibitors across 16 cities, including 63 galleries and 14 institutional participants, among them the Kochi Biennale Foundation, Chennai Photo Biennale Foundation, Alkazi Theatre Archives, Liszt Institute Hungarian Cultural Centre, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) and Serendipity Arts. Of the participating galleries, four are international (from the US, UK and Brazil).

The past and its impact on the present, the here and now, and the future will find expression in different forms and formats at the fair, which is in its 13 edition. For instance, as part of performing arts, Arpita Akhanda, a contemporary artist from Odisha, will explore the effects of Partition and displacement on the body. And the workshop, “Dots, Lines and Shapes”, will demonstrate the different ways in which we interpret and perceive information. Also planned are 30- to 40-minute public art walks at the art fair grounds, one of which will delve into the impact of the pandemic through art and introspection. Another will take a journey into the history and future of cameras, and attempt to look at the world through the lens of a photographer.

The Studio, a new space at the fair, will traverse across creative fields, going beyond visual art, design and fashion to include technology and the digital world – for example, interactive bots.

Smoke 2021 by Sudhir Patwardhan. Courtesy: Vadehra Art Gallery

Among the things that appear to have made a decisive entry into the world of art are non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. India Art Fair couldn’t have ignored those. “The emergence of NFTs has broadened the conversation and audience for art in India, and globally as well, especially amongst younger collectors,” says Jaya Asokan, the fair director. “We will not only have NFT works by Indian artists presented by digital art platform Terrain.art, including known names such as Amrit Pal Singh and younger talent such as Laya Mathikshara and Khyati Trehan, we will also have a dedicated auditorium talk (titled “NFTease”) to demystify NFTs,” she adds. Among those who’ll speak on the subject is Raghava KK, also known as “NFT Punk”, who set a record for Indian artists at Sotheby’s auction in 2021 with his NFT, La Petite Mort, going for $94,500.

Another first is a metaverse simulation of the venue and the artworks, wherein visitors will be able to select avatars and interact with friends and family at the India Art Fair in an immersive virtual setting. Behind this metaverse experience, says Asokan, is Gurugram-based interactive technology studio XR Central.

Art and technology are also at the heart of artist Ayesha Singh and architect Abhimanyu Dalal’s collaborative work titled “inversion, incision, immateriality”. This installation, an inverted pyramid created with kinetic lights, features layers upon layers of alphabets from over a hundred languages spoken in India, including scripts that are forgotten or are no longer in use.

India Art Fair’s long partnership with BMW India, meanwhile, enters another year – this time through a new commission, “The Future is Born of Art”, wherein artist Faiza Hasan’s car-wrap design, titled “Suno”, reflects on the theme of sustainability. The BMW serving as the canvas for this work of art is, aptly, its first all-electric car in India, iX.                                                

The pandemic years have seen a number of new, first-time collectors from India entering the art market. Cognisant of this, the India Art Fair is also offering a range of works across a spectrum of budgets: starting from around Rs 10,000 for prints of major modernist going up to Rs 50,000 to Rs 70,000 for a piece by emerging artists who are making their art fair debut, besides works by digital and NFT artists.

 

Gini Papai Won't Let You Jump by Maya Varadaraj. Courtesy: Aicon

India Art Fair is on from April 28 to May 1 at NSIC Grounds, Delhi. Details on indiaartfair.in