Every Human Being is an Artist

Speakers: Gitanjali Dang, Shreyas Karle, Sanjeev Khandekar, Sharmila Samant, and Apnavi Thacker
Discussant: Susan Hapgood

In collaboration with Mumbai Art Room and Arbour Research Initiatives, Mumbai

October 20, 2011 | 6.30 pm
Arbour Research Initiatives, Mumbai

Every human being is an artist. Caution: Children at Work, a contemporary art exhibition that was held at the Mumbai Art Room in September 2011, addressed this concept, popularised by the artist-pedagogue Joseph Beuys, but also introduced in the writings of Novalis, Ananda Coomaraswamy, and the Russian avant-garde. Curated by Gitanjali Dang, the show featured work by artists Shreyas Karle, Sanjeev Khandekar with Vaishali Narkar, Sharmila Samant, and Apnavi Thacker. The exhibition also involved four local children, Tanushri and Saloni Tandel, and Tanushree and Vishakha Malode. The curator conducted workshops with them over a period of time, discussing key ideas from Beuys’ I Am Searching For Field Character, 1973. Consequently, two videos were realised; conceptualised by the curator, they are a reflection of the process.

A talk by Dang, examining the exhibition and its genesis, will be followed by a panel discussion with the artists. Susan Hapgood, director, Mumbai Art Room, a non-commercial storefront exhibition space in Colaba, will moderate the discussion.

Gitanjali Dang is an independent curator and critic living in Mumbai, and curator of the recent exhibition, Caution: Children at Work.

Shreyas Karle, an award-winning young artist based in Mumbai, received a PD in Visual Arts from the M.S. University of Baroda.

Sanjeev Khandekar is a Mumbai-based visual artist, Marathi poet, and writer, who collaborates with artist Vaishali Narkar on diverse bodies of work in mediums including stone inlays, embroideries, paintings, and photography.

Sharmila Samant is an artist whose work deals with issues of globalisation, identity and consumer culture. She was one of the founders of the Mumbai-based collective, Open Circle.

Apnavi Thacker is a self-taught artist who was born in Mumbai and raised in Geneva, and has just completed a residency in Berlin.

Susan Hapgood, an art historian, is the founding director of the Mumbai Art Room, and senior advisor to Independent Curators International, New York.