Courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin/Paris/Seoul Still © Simon Fujiwara
Very Small Feelings, the new exhibit at KNMA taps into the art of innocence and the essence of childhood play. As you step into the exhibit, you will be transported to a whimsical realm where imagination runs wild, and memories of youth come alive. The gallery space itself is transformed into a vibrant and interactive playground, thoughtfully designed to capture the small feelings. The exhibit features an array of interactive installations that encourage visitors to engage with their own inner child. There are artworks, half done that will be complete by only the wilful engagement of the audience. Visitors are invited to participate actively, rediscovering the simple pleasures of childhood through hands-on experiences.
This is the fourth exhibition at KNMA in the multi-part, long-term programme Young Artists of Our Times series, in collaboration with Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka. The exhibition is curated by Akansha Rastogi (Senior Curator, KNMA) and Diana Campbell (Chief Curator, Dhaka Art Summit) with Ruxmini Choudhury (Assistant Curator, Samdani Art Foundation), Avik Debdas and Swati Kumari (Curatorial and Research Associates, KNMA).
As a curator, researcher and art enthusiast, Akansha Rastogi’s artists concerns are completely devoted to the ‘Creation and sustenance of newer experimental spaces and platforms for young artists and creative practitioners. As a museum professional, who has been with KNMA for the last twelve years, my primary concern is to make museums as useful tools and spaces for living artists and visitors, to give more functions and meanings to what contemporary art museum-can-be in this part of the world,’ says Akansha. She delves further into her practice for us by talking about the new exhibit.
Can you tell me a little about your beginnings?
I grew up in a small town called Mawana, many people may know it for the Mawana Sugar factory, and went to school in Meerut, UP. My trajectory, from education to the kind of work and projects I have done, has been an unpre- dictable one and risk-friendly. I studied science in school and moved to English literature in Khalsa college in Delhi University, and then again moved to Art History in my post-grad at the National Museum Institute. I’m grateful to my parents for allowing to make these shifts and respect my choices even when they or even I didn’t understand what it will lead me to. I was part of the Drama society, literature magazine in college and writing students’ pieces for newspapers then, and was greatly interested in becoming part of PR and the advertising world. But entry into visual arts, my interest in theory and exposure to contemporary artists completely changed that direction. I have not studies in Curation, but spending time in the archives and working with the historical materials and artists led me to develop my response and way of exhibition-making. And exhibition after exhibition has only strengthened my belief in the power of exhibitions, what they can achieve, and what expressive language exhibitions really are.
When and how did your romance with the arts begin?
I was always a writing person. So, one can say that graduating from writing love letters to writing for oneself and writing to be read by others was a slow process. My engagement with theatre and performing arts was the first to come, with writing plays, working back-stage in organising performances, doing the PR work for the theatre repertoire, and many other multiple jobs that tuned me into the creative processes and also its infrastructural requirements. I started reviewing art exhibitions for magazines while I still studying at National Museum Institute. Just being present with artists and arts led me from one thing to another.
What was curatorial process like for Very Small Feelings?
Very Small Feelings exhibition is special for me. More as a young mother (my baby will turn a year-old), a life experience that sits at the centre of conceiving an exhibition liket his that gently holds and hosts the figure of the child and childhood play as a stage. It addresses children and adults with the same content, and creating a space for intergenerational exchange. Also, this being the fourth exhibition under the ‘Young Artists of Our Times’ series that I conceptualised in 2019 at KNMA, my intention with this exhi- bition was to highlight the necessity of dedicated spaces of contemporary art for younger audiences. Moving with that intention, I had a wonderful time co-developing the exhibition with my co-curator Diana Campbell. The firstiteration of the exhibition in Dhaka as part of Dhaka Art Summit had a tremendous response with 5,75,000 people viewing it in 9 days. We developed the exhibition over one and a half year, and also commissioned many new works for the show. The chance to develop works from a proposal to manifesting ideas concretely in exhibition space is a journey, and accompanying artists through that journey, learning from each other in the process has been rewarding for all the team members involved.
What do you want the audience to take away from the show?
I want my audiences to allow and give themselves the gift to time, with very small feelings. The exhibition is a half-done palate, an incomplete story with many stories in it that have only been partially told, partially set in motion, that can only be pushed and completed with visitors’ wilful engagement and participation. It is full of interactive works that invite you to be yourself. The path from the museum entrance leads into the well where the two siblings (drawn by Anpu Varkey) spend lot of time and then to the Belly of the Strange, a strange creature or a toy with two mouths, and then further to many circuitous paths and dramatic spaces that encourage the idea of play, reading and imagination. I hope visitors get to meet their inner child.
Chittaprosad Untitled Linocut on paper
8.50 Inch x 11.00 Inch KNMA Collection, New Delhi
What kind of art do you gravitate towards as a viewer and engage with as a curator?
I’m always on the lookout for practices that are people-centric, subjective and speak to our current time in creative ways.
How do you think the art world has changed in these years? What do you think the next big thing in art is?
Art world is not singular, has never been An Entity. Many worlds, art-worlds and disciplines collide in the arts, and create newer spaces. This fusing and alternative streamsflowing outwards and inwards is the most exciting parts. As fresh batches of artists and creative practitioners enter, they stimulate and challenge older practices. I think the most important thing that has changed over years is artists becoming conscious of their rights, demands and pay, so contracts and other formal structures are coming in stronger ways, which is absolutely needed change. The next big thing that I want to see is scaling up – more public art commissions and socially-engaged and performative practices to take over our urban centers. Audiences are ready and want it, artists want it too, it’s the art patrons, curators and arts managers who need to level up, and lead the infrastructural support required to do so.
This article is an all exclusive from our July EZ. To read more such articles, follow the link here.
Words Hansika Lohani
Date 10-07-2023