Several aspects of creative communication were discussed with regard to literature and art, Silver Jubilee celebration of B.K.Art college a Review

B K College of Art and Crafts has completed its twenty-five years creative journey in Odisha and its existence resulted in the paradigm shift in art education and propagation both within the state and beyond. To commemorate the success, AlumniBKCAC and B.K. College of Art and Crafts are celebrating its silver Jubilee in Bhubaneswar.

The celebration begun with the inauguration of a public art and site specific art workshop, curetted by Jagannath Panda on the 20^th of January 2010. This National workshop was organized at the Lalit Kala Regional centre, Bhubaneswar along with various other public sites by the participating artists. The participating artists are Paribartan Mohanty, Prateek Sagar, Anjan kumar Sahoo, Helen Brahma, Kanta Kishor Moharana, Nityananda Ojha, Sudarshan Biswal, Sujit Mallik, Sambit Panda and Vejayant Das. This workshop would continue up to 27^th of January 2010.

The college event started with a national Symposium on Creative Communication. Prof. Kanchan Chakraverti, Art Historian from Santiniketan, inaugurated the symposium on 22^nd January 2010. Prof. Ganeswar Mishra, Prof. Sourindra Barik, Dr. Dinanath Pathy and Convened by Dr. Pradosh Mishra. Several aspects of creative communication were discussed with regard to literature and art. The participants focused on methods of communication and its relevance to art and how art needs to be communicated to the audience/viewer. The afternoon session was devoted to the audio-visual presentation by select artists like Ashish Pahi and Kanta Kishore which was coordinated by Dr. Pradosh Mishra.

On the 23^rd of January, an exhibition by the alumni of BK College of Art and Crafts was organized at the college campus on the foothills of the ancient site Khandagiri and Udayagiri. The Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Naveen Patnaik, who not only thoroughly viewed the works, but also had an intimate dialogue with the artists, inaugurated this exhibition. Dr. Pradosh Mishra briefed the Chief Minster about the displayed art works, present state of art and trends, while Jagannath Panda explained him of the national and international issues related to art. The curator of the show, Sovan Kumar assisted the Chief Minister to release the Exhibition catalogue. Ashok Nayak accompanied the Chief Minister to the annual Art Exhibition of the College. He also felicitated the Former Principal, Kala Bhawan, Santiniketan, Prof. Kanchan Chakraverti, for his contribution to the art historical studies in the eastern subcontinent, Dr. Dinanath Pathy, the first Principal of the college and Shri Adwaita Prasad Gadanayak, President, AlumniBKCAC for collaborating to the cause of art in Odisha. In his address, he emphasized on the rich cultural and art heritage of Odisha and its application in the contemporary art, defining a new approach of continuity. He appreciated the effort of the AlumniBKCAC for the entire event.

This programme was followed by an interaction by the faculty and alumni of the college, with the students under training, under the event title, My College: My Art. Dr. Dinanath Pathy, Shri D N Rao, Shri Baladev Maharatha, Shri Ramahari Jena, Shri Siba Panigrahi, Shri Adwait Gadanaik, Shri Jagannath Panda and Shri Ashok Nayak. As a continuation to the event, many of the passed out students and participating artists showed their creative video short documentations. Both the academic sessions was coordinated and convened by Dr. Pradosh Mishra.

In the evening, His Excellency the Governor visited the exhibition hall and was accompanied by the participating artists. His keen interest in art motivated the young and dynamic students for an intimate interaction. The Governor also felicitated the Teachers and staff of the college for their valuable contribution to the art education. The Governor graced the cultural programme at the college campus at the newly prepared amphitheatre, where Sakhinata, a traditional dance form of Odisha, Odishi, the classical dance form, and Sambalpuri, another folk dance form was presented before him.

The Silver Jubilee functions were supported by Subrat Mullick, Anjan Sahoo, Tarakant Parida, Veejayant Dash, Meenaketan Patnaik, Pratap Jena, Aparna Ray, Bidyutlata Patasahani, Sangeeta Mohapatra, Ramakanta Samantray, Sangram Moharana, Sudarshan Biswal, Projesh Mohapatra, Kirti Kishor Moharana and many other well wishers of AlumniBKCAC.

The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi

Review: Commentary in Three Dimensions by Himali Singh Soin

KANTA KISHORE MOHARANA

Ashok Art Gallery

D-1/31, Rear Portion, Model Town-II, 110009 New Delhi, India

December 11, 2009 - January 11, 2010

Eerily realistic, thought-provoking, rebellious and skillfully crafted: Kanta Kishore Moharana’s mixed-media installations refreshingly bridge conceptualism and formalism, birthing work whose message is embossed within the geometry of the marble, fibre, and bronze of which it is made.

The magic of Moharana’s works is its uncanny realism despite his use of permanent, heavy materials to depict that which is perishable, light, and functional. He sculpts, for example, newspapers from marble—an everyday, perishable item made permanent, heavy—and chisels out real headlines to shape a commentary on society’s ills: words literally ‘set in stone.’ In ‘Restoration,’ he carves a cardboard box being eaten by cockroaches from marble. The weightless, disposable quality of paper and cardboard is ironically effaced by its own depiction as the artist crafts immovable objects from perishable subjects.

This confrontation of our conventional perception of material objects urges the viewer to come closer. But this is an online exhibition, thus hindering the interested from really finding the desired detail in form. Kanta Kishore remarkably does not see this as a disadvantage. “I think it makes my work universal,” he says, “and accessible worldwide.” His background is humble: born to a family of stone carvers in Orissa, he has learned form and technique from his forefathers, yet injected his own ideas to appropriate the work into today’s socio-political and artistic context.

Kanta Kishore’s work with marble is not a traditional sculptural practice that mimics reality. Instead, he utilizes other media to make installations that comment directly on poverty, globalization, exploitation, hunger, and revolution. In his piece, ‘Exploitation,’ Kanta Kishore presents tiny bronze men who are trampled by a giant, red, 6-foot long, ornamented, Arabian shoe. The bright scarlet shoe comments on our contemporary classist society, on capitalism’s fissures in distribution, and on the inhumane manner in which workers, children and adults are treated. Compositionally, each element is carefully balanced in geometry, size, space, weight, color and concept. The specifically Arabian identity of the shoe, however, also implies a potentially provocative interpretation of crowds trodden under the force of the Muslim world.

“There are two aspects in nature:/ The perishable and the imperishable./ All life in this world belongs to the former;/ The unchanging element belongs to the later,” says the Bhagvat Gita. In flipping our perceptions of that which is permanent and that which is temporary, Kanta Kishore provokes us to think more deeply about the meaning and importance of the Absolute in a cruelly relativist world.

-- Himali Singh Soin

(Images from top to bottom: Raw Vision 3; Truth 1; Exploitation. All images courtesy of Ashok Art Gallery and the artist.)

SOURCE: Art Slant


The Ashok Art Gallery is internationally known for one of its most important holdings: more than 2000 major works by the world's most significant Artists.Over the past years, as Ashok Art Gallery has become a major centre for contemporary visual art, the Gallery has built a strong collection of contemporary work of different artists, became a sponsor of the STANDUP-SPEAKOUT Artshow, Organized by Art Of Living Foundation and United Nations.Organized an International Contenmporary Art Exhibition including artists from USA, The Nederlands, Pakistan and India.We have also participated at Art Expo India Mumbai and India Art Summit Delhi