The Page 3 culture's deep roots
Raju Narisetti -
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 3:43 PM
While the pervasive Page 3 approach(a less newsy Page 6 for those New York Post fans among the Romantic Realist's readers) focusing on "who attended wearing what on their sleeve and on their body" rather than "what was show there" is how most Indian metro newspapers cover art these days, just how deeply entrenched this has become was brought home earlier today when I got this email invitation for the opening of an art show on 17 December in New Delhi.
What struck me was how the invitation, about four artists and their video installations, doesn't even make a pretense that the opening is about their work. The invitation, from an Indian affiliate of Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, the large global public relations firm, is all about the Page 3 value of this event. The email invite's subject matter is: Invite : An art evening with Socialites, Designers & Artists (Today).
Beyond listing the names of the four artists (small mercies), it lists 20 "confirmed guests", dropping names like Bal, Gandhi, Jaipuria, Jindal and Munjal,like sugar in front of flies, as well as 7 other "artists/photographers" who are also showing up. And from the list, it appears just one of the four artists whose work is being shown is actually coming to the opening!
Wonderwall
Invites you to
A Cocktail evening
To showcase Video Installations
by
Ravi Agarwal
Priyanka Dasgupta
Sukanya Ghosh
Adrian Fisk
At:
Clarion Collection
(Formally known as The Qutub Hotel)
Shaheed Jeet Singh Marg
New Delhi - 110016
Today, Dec 17, 2008
At
7 PM
The Confirmed Guest List includes
Mr. & Mrs. Vineet Agarwal
Mr. Ashish Anand
Mr. & Mrs. Jas Arora
Mr. Varun Bahl
Mr. Rohit Bal
Mr. Rohit Gandhi
Mr. Rahul Khanna
Mr. & Mrs. Shaleen Jain
Ms. Ashna Singh Jaipuria
Ms. Preeti Singh Jaipuria
Mr. & Mrs. Naveen Jindal
Mr. & Mrs. Sanjay Kapoor
Ms. Shefali Munjal
Mr. & Mrs. Parmeet Sawhney
Mr. & Mrs. Hameet Sawhney
Mr. & Mrs. Vikramjit Singh
Mr. & Mrs. A.D. Singh
Deepika Jindal
Mike Knowles (Royal Society for Arts UK)
Swapan Seth
Artists/Photographers
Anjum Singh
Manisha Gera
Shivani Agarwal
Pradeep Dasgupta
Dinesh Khanna
Sandeep Biswas
Ravi Agarwal
Iram Sultan
About Video Art:
Over the past few years, artists have been creating video artworks. They are being encouraged by select galleries in India and abroad, as well as by a very small but growing number of Indian collectors who are fascinated by the medium and are not afraid to try something new. The first works of video art were created in the West in the 1960s, and Indian artists began experimenting with the medium in the late 1990s. It is shot like a film, using any camera, but the similarity ends there.
About Wonderwall:
wonderwall.co.in is an e-commerce website that's the brainchild of Ajay Rajgarhia, and is India's first ecommerce website specializing in fine art photography and other new and upcoming forms of art.A platform to showcase established names and also introduce upcoming artists, the website is dedicated to making photography an accessible form of art to the public at large. Says Ajay Rajgarhia, "With Wonderwall I hope to be instrumental in getting people to understand and develop people's interest in fine art photography and other new and upcoming forms of art, irrespective of medium".
To unveil the site to the public, Wonderwall had it's first exhibition at the Alliance Francaise, New Delhi in May 2007. The exhibition was curated by Ajay Rajgarhia. Wonderwall aim is to organize regular exhibitions in the capital as well in other cities and countries. The aim is to target people who would like a "touch & feel" before they buy fine art photography". Ajay Rajgarhia/Wonderwall has been associated with more than ten exhibitions since inception, in cities like Delhi, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai etc. Tokeep current with market trends, and with its objective of being one of the first few entrants in a new medium of art, Wonderwall is now getting into Video Art, and the current show celebrates the launch.
RSVP
Nikhil Kumar
Account Manager LexiconPublic Relations & Corporate Consultants
(A Fleishman-Hillard International Communications Affiliate)
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Can we blame artists and gallery owners and their publicists for behaving this way if media houses would rather focus on comings and goings rather than the art?
Ps: In the interests of full disclosure, I had bought a photograph from Ajay Rajgarhia and his Wonderwall gallery, but I don't know him otherwise.