Sivakasi as a town central to the production of printing calendar art in India gets its designs from artists all over. One of its resident artists is S. Murugakani, who has been active since the 1980’s. Most countries follow a … Continued »
From a pack of cards printed to commemorate India’s independence, like other national leaders of importance within the pack, Nehru is marked out by (his) particular iconographic traits; a sherwani coat over a white kurta and the cap. Aside from … Continued »
The picture of Siva and Parvati is one of marital bliss and resembles ‘just married’ photographs (of today). The standardized figure is comparable to that of Rama and Sita. Collapsing of modern elements within the same frame as gods is characteristic … Continued »
I This postcard image shows us an etching of Darjeeling that is obviously the artist’s perception of it since he could not have survived two centuries! It was the 19th century, and nostalgia, a condition brought on by the onslaught … Continued »
The town of Tarakeshwar produced the scandalous affair of Elokeshi, an adulterous life who is hacked to death by her husband Nabin. This is a good point to think about how society reproduces itself through different mediums.The Elokeshi affair circulated … Continued »
The tablets show us fantastic elaborate rituals of torturous beheadings, decapitations, cauldrons, and flesh being picked by black birds. Presented as a magic-show, ‘Pisiyo’, a particularly chuffed demon addresses our gaze as other hell entrants enact the fate that awaits … Continued »
The text at the bottom of the wedding invitation states, “ A spark from you- Oh! The crown of excellence…would enrich us and ennoble us”, this text anchors our floating understanding to one of exalting Jayalalitha. This is a departure … Continued »
Bathed in moonlight, the picture is composed of several semi clad women that appear to frolic by the water channel. Within this setting they appear defencelessly attractive to our voyeuristic gaze, even as they assert their sexuality in addressing our … Continued »
Page 65 of the leaflet shows a ‘bird’s eye view’ of the principal entrance of the exhibition. Panoramic views first appeared in 1842 the newspaper ‘Illustrated London’. The panoramas were of London at a time when the technology to produce … Continued »
The painted photograph shows us a couple entwined in an embrace. ‘Romance’ is framed within an idyllic setting of a river side and like most melodramas, inner tumultuous emotions (of romance) spills over into this mise-en-scene of a gushing river. … Continued »