I was thinking about the cultural context of this residency when I got distracted by the question of how we define or look at culture (especially in a country like India, especially at a time like now). Time and again I find myself coming back to a text that has become a favourite over the years, “The Location of Culture” by Indian-born, Harvard Professor, Homi K. Bhabha.
“The very concepts of homogenous national cultures, the consensual or contiguous transmission of historical traditions, or ‘organic’ ethnic communities – as the grounds of cultural comparitivism - are in a profound process of re-definition,” Bhabha tells us. He also says, “This interstitial passage between fixed identifications opens up the possibility of a cultural hybridity that entertains difference without an assumed or imposed hierarchy…”
It’s this space that he keeps talking about, this in-between state: between classifications, between geographies, between times. It is this borderline space of possibility, of “invention and intervention,” that allows for creativity and newness. In a way, Bhabha’s concepts link the inter-disciplinary nature of this residency to the transitional phase India seems to be in at the moment.
At the recent Indian Art Summit (Jan 2011), cultural practitioners and theorists talked about India being in a “hybrid state” between old-word Nehruvian Socialism and new-world Global Cosmopolitanism. Some fervently disagreed and said that this notion of “new India” only applied to a certain sector of society and therefore had limited currency. Although this may be the case, I think it would be fair to say that India has dramatically changed over the last 10-15 years and that this shift in awareness, lifestyle and possibilities is trickling down into many aspects of society – including the art world.
Brandon Ballengee while on this residency in India has been thinking about this collision of sorts, and explains how it has penetrated his art practice. He has been looking at the “new wave of Indian art clashing with Western art” which has resulted in the canvases in his studio being displayed at a tilt. (The stark white canvas suggests De-constructivist, Minimalist forms – but the tilt makes us see that it is meant to be presented in an altered state).
In the same studio he has created a “buffet for insects,” covering a long table with perfectly-presented petunias and carnations, placed upon a frilly white table-cloth. He explains that this looks at his larger concept of “cross-pollination” where different facets of the public can be brought together through a work like this. These different facets are particularly contrasted in a country like India, hence the additional details in his work.
One of the readings of Dan and Heather’s work could also look at this city’s shift in recent times. As the city has been expanding rapidly, much of the peripheral farmlands have been engulfed to make way for property-developers. Stories of farmers cashing in their livelihoods and their heritage have been rife, while the elite are increasingly using their Delhi farmhouses as retreats or for social entertaining.
By growing barley up the walls of a building located in a simultaneously urban yet rural location (KHOJ studios is in Khirkee Village in South Delhi and stands opposite a new shopping mall – you seldom get such old world meeting new) their work takes on connotations of past histories and present realities.
On the other-hand if we take a less analytical, more practical approach – this may be an encouraging look at how we should be growing more gardens in the urban space – whether on roof-tops or simply vertically on our walls!
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