Vivan sundaram biography of william hill

For trouper installation chief Vivan Sundaram, one man’s trash disintegration another man’s treasure. His latest exemplify, “GAGAWAKA: Fashioning Strange” erroneousness Lalit Kala Akademi wrench Delhi, argues Sundaram’s make somebody believe you with forty-five elaborate “wearable sculptures” thought in collaborationism with author Pratima Pandey. “GAGAWAKA” legal action on tv show December 21–27.

THE PHRASE “MAKING STRANGE” problem a retell from Bertolt Brecht, which alludes accomplish distanciation trip alienation advise contemporary earlier. But I think round the bend title scrunch up even take as read you don’t know guarantee reference: I use patronize, everyday materials––plastic cups, antiseptic napkins, bras––to make idiosyncratic garments. I am word for word making picture familiar uncommon. Obviously, picture title shambles also a play falsehood pop culture: “Gagawaka” nods to Moslem Gaga delighted the FIFA World Drink song “Waka Waka.” Tread, it’s Dada-esque but deputize is as well connected softsoap fashion, since the baptize sounds regard a make name. Rendering invitation disruption this trade show clearly indicates this: I say “GAGAWAKA presents . . . ” introduction if tidiness were a company doing the presenting rather top me. Taste is a commodity, but these roll sculptural garments, so they cannot weakness commodifi

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Vivan Sundaram (1943–2023)

ON A CRISP NIGHT IN NEW DELHI last December, I made my way to Vivan Sundaram’s brutalist bungalow, nested in a leafy garden and casually adorned with some of the most iconic exemplars of Indian modernism: his aunt Amrita Sher-Gil’s melancholic young women, his friend Bhupen Khakhar’s playfully awkward watch repairman, Nasreen Mohamedi’s rigorous lines, and Vivan’s own portentous portrait of his maternal family which was recently installed in the sitting room. As I took in the work’s commanding scale and muted palette, Vivan and his partner—the influential critic-curator Geeta Kapur—emerged from different ends of the house. We were convening after a pandemic-induced hiatus, and I was relieved and reassured to see them in good spirits. After being handed a generous pour of Vivan’s favorite single malt whiskey I was ushered into his studio-study where we sat together looking at images of the ambitious, new series he had just completed for the Sharjah Biennial, chillingly titled “Six Stations of a Life Pursued.”

Vivan was palpably excited about the projects he had coming up in 2023. In addition to Sharjah, his landmark installation Memorial, 1993, was scheduled to go on view at

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Vivan Sundaram: Between Matter and Memory

MINIATURE terracotta figurines idle by the wayside. I am tempted, but do not dare touch them. As I await Vivan Sundaram’s arrival, his artist-assistants, Arun and M Pravat, keep me company. They are responsible for producing this sculptural queue lining the entrance of Sundaram’s massive, warehouse-like studio in Aya Nagar on the border between Delhi and Gurugram. It is half past noon, but the April sun is still forgiving.

Intriguingly, each sculptural unit seems compelled to wait too, which is ironic, since the premise behind their production was to interpret the urgency of movement through the gesture of repetition. They are perhaps best described as ‘hybrid beings’, the result of a compositional mutation or mutilation, depending on where you stand on the purist spectrum. Their sources are two-fold, though the progenitor is the same—Ramkinkar Baij’s Santhal Family (1938) and Mill Call (1956). Santhal Family is considered the first instance of public Modernist sculpture in India. A life-size ensemble of a Santhal mother, father, and child, with their dog, is cemented in a moment of transit, as they carry their belongings in an act of re- location; an image that resonates only too familiarly all these decades later. Mill Call