Tuesday, April 26, 2011



Somberikatte @ 1Shanthiroad presents RE-LOOK: Lectures on Indian Art


Fearful Symmetry: Amrita Sher-Gil’s Two Girls

a lecture by RAKHEE BALARAM
- Art Historian, New Delhi
Sunday 1 May 2011 at 6:30 pm

@ 1Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery,

#1, Shanthi Road, Shanthi Nagar, Bangalore 560027
Fearful Symmetry: Amrita Sher-Gil’s Two Girls

This paper critically examines the duality embedded in Amrita Sher-Gil’s portrait Two Girls from the period of 1939. In the light of new materials and archival documents recently published on Sher-Gil by Vivan Sundaram, the portrait will be contextualized in terms of the representation at a time of heightened political tension in Hungary as well as a wider reading of the work against a backdrop of nationalism and colonial rule in India. It further engages the notion of flesh, erotic conflict and adolescent sexuality with relation to the two naked girls - one dark skinned and one light skinned that the artist portrays. Sher-Gil’s own words and photographs, the complexity of her memory, dreams and reflections and the artist’s own intimate anxieties and struggles to develop a ‘modern’ style of painting reflect a woman who used her artistic and critical sensibilities to forge her future and her painting in terms of the thrust of her ambition and the disquiet and failures of her past. The personal becomes the political, ambition becomes desire and the sullenness and ‘unreadability’ of Two Girls becomes as poised and self-contained as an unexploded bomb.
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Dr. Rakhee Balaram holds two doctorates, in French Literature and Art History, from Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. Specialist in modern and contemporary art, she has various publications on the aspects of twentieth century art and literature. She has also contributed to Vivan Sundaram’s Amrita Sher Gil: A Portrait in Letters and Writings ( Tulika 2010) . She is currently a visiting professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
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*RE-LOOK - Lectures on Indian ArtThis series of lectures will present exciting new research being done in the areas of art history, art practice and visual anthropology in India, each for the first time in Bengaluru. Distinguished art historians and academics will be invited to give illustrated papers on their recent work and interests. There will be a lecture every month, which will take place at the popular artist space 1Shanthiroad, situated in the heart of the city.

*Somberikatte: Somberikatte is a Kannada word meaning idler’s platform- usually the platform around a large tree where people gather to gossip and exchange news. It is a fictional institution, sometimes a forum, sometimes a film production company or the name of a photo studio, used by the artist Pushpamala N.

*1.Shanthiroad: The Studio/Gallery at 1.Shanthiroad, Bangalore, is an independent artist run space for art residencies, slide lectures, small conferences, exhibitions, performances, screenings and informal gatherings. Centrally located with an award winning design, it was initiated by Suresh Jayaram and is administered by a not-for-profit trust VAC – Visual Art Collective.

www.1shanthiroad.com
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Thursday, April 21, 2011

IDENTITY : Sethusamudram Project 2011 an India+Sri Lanka Collaboration

IDENTITY : Sethusamudram Project 2011 : India + Sri Lanka Collaboration
Lakisha Fernando (SL)
Mangala A.M.
Thisath Thoradeniya (SL)
Shivananda Basavanthappa

Opens 22 April 2011, 5 pm onwards
The exhibition will remain open from 23rd - 29th April 12 am - 8 pm

*Lakisha and Thisath are resident artists at 1Shanthiroad from Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
*Shivananda and Mangala A.M. are Bangalore based artists.

*The Sethusamudram Project is a 3 year collaborative art project that Theertha International Artists Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka and 1.Shanthi Road Studio/Gallery, Bangalore, India have developed collectively envisioning to engage with and address this highly complex and variegated history and emotions surrounding the concept of Sethusamudram. This includes the foreground, links, similarities, and shared anxieties, emotions and histories between the two geographical areas. The overall research area will cover a wide area of study that include society, politics, history, religion, mythology as relevant to Sri Lanka and India. The Sethusamudram Project would like to engage in the wider discussion of history navigating through the contemporary dynamics of art (involvement with, and discussion on ideological and methodological innovations of visual arts) within the region.This project will unfold a collaborative and dialog making platform where Theertha and 1.Shanthi Road will respond to each other. All the programs will be reciprocal and will be a continuation and progression from one to the other.

* This project is funded by Arts Collaboratory.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Call for application for the post of 1Shanthiroad Studio


Wanted administrator for 1shanthiroad:

1Shanthiroad Studio, an Alternative Art Space in Bangalore is looking for a suitable candidate for the post of Administrator.
The job involves the following responsibilities

-          Correspondences
-          Managing Archives.
-          Managing accounts
-          Public Relations

Person applying for the post is expected to have basic knowledge of computers (Microsoft office and Photoshop). The person should have good communication skills and fair knowledge of Kannada and English

The person will be expected to remain in the space between 11am – 7pm, five days a week.

Interested person please send in your Bio-Data along with photograph to 1.shanthiroad@gmail.com

For more information about the space visit www.1shanthiroad.com