The Five Most Provocative Experiments In Indian Art In 2016

1. Explorations: Music and nostalgia

Artists: Shubha Mudgal, Ustad Akram Khan and Murad Ali Khan

Work: Living Traditions

In Hindustani music, good interpretations are much-awaited re-births. Great minds and musicians give re-interpretations a whole new meaning and purpose, fining edges, revering the sepia, preserving art, as they go back to the method and melody. In the Living Traditions performance at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa, recently, renowned vocalist Vidushi Shubha Mudgal has mothered a musical re-birth, curating a re-interpretation of compositions recorded in the early 20th century. The idea -- creating “a beautiful montage of the past and present” was done with the help of maestros – Ustad Akram Khan (tabla), Ustad Murad Ali Khan (sarangi) and Vidushi Kaushiki Chakraborty. Archival photographs were pulled out, artistes told about the path-breaking idea of interpreting recordings sourced, and costumes re-created by designer Rohit Bal. Gorgeous.

The material, for this milestone performance in Hindustani music, was gold -- an extract from a 78 RPM recording of Raag Shyam Kalyan by Azam bai of Kolhapur for Kaushiki and a recording of the great Ustad Bundu Khan Sahab's Bhairavi.

Azam Bai, according to Vidushi Shubha Mudgal, had recorded for the Odeon Company in the 1930s. The recording, shared by Dr Suresh Chandvankar of the Society of Indian Record Collectors became the provocateur of change and continuity. “Archival photographs of Hindustani classical musicians show that in the past performers were not always seated when performing, as is the custom today. Several photographs and paintings depict musicians in upright position, instruments strapped to their bodies, playing the sarangi, harmonium or tabla among other instruments. I always wondered how difficult and strenuous it must be for them to play like that.” The Khans did not disappoint the courageous curator. They sent a preparatory video to Mudgal, performing with the sarangi and tablas strapped to their waists, presenting their brave interpretation.

Three great musicians of our times have rethought their music and tradition, connecting with the bandish, like never before. History has repeated itself the Hindustani way, bathed in Shyam Kalyan and Bhairavi, hiding and meeting the sun.

2. Explorations: Womb, birth, life and death

Artist: GR Iranna

Work: Garbh

There is something mysteriously cyclical in noted artist GR Iranna's use and depiction of holy ash. Surrounding and wrapping your senses with the visual power of its cooling greys, the ash, in Iranna's work, has traveled miles -- from his brush and palette to its physical presence, in barely three years. The mysteries of life, birth and death, smeared in holy ash, intrigue you in his work, once again. Moving in a procession and celebration led by Lord Shiva, on Iranna's giant canvas in his contemporary take on Raja Ravi Varma's oleograph in Gallery Art Alive's group display When High and Low Art Meet, the holy ash had clothed the Naga sadhus, fading against the black and amber, inviting you to follow. This time, the ash has flown out of the canvas, fined in the pestle and mortar of his grinding imagination, in Garbh, a giant egg sculpture, composed of holy ash, bhasma or vibhuti.

Displayed at Aspinwall House at the ongoing Kochi Biennale, Garbh occupies a room, warming you with its presence in the small space, keeping you bound to its exterior, restricting you to the outside, giving you no space to navigate the milestones of life and death, drawing closer to your nothingness in a cycle -- of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Turning around the use of colours in previous depictions of womb in installations and sculptures where artists use vibrant reds, shreds and threads in hollow-round-surrounding spaces, Iranna has used the material and element derived from the smouldering-hot concept and form of burning ritualistic wood. The hunger -- to smear, smell, touch, and feel, grows in the viewer, perhaps in the most powerful way after Subodh Gupta's depiction and use of cow dung in his work. Visual nostalgia becomes another dimension, pushing you back to the Lord Shiva, His procession and celebration on Iranna's canvas, making you follow, the journey of ash. Raag Bhairav, Dear Iranna?

3. Exploration: Krishna

Artiste: Vidushi Anuradha Pal

Work: Krishna ke Taal

This maestro's musical imagination has a mind and rhythm her own. We won't go back to stories on Anuradha Pal's training and gender. Enough of gender. Her music, art, global collaborations and presence on the dais have always spoken louder.

This year, the maestro unraveled Krishna, by telling and retelling His stories on the tabla, interspersing verses with music and vocals and rhythm in Krishna ke Taal. The transition of stories to poetry, ‘chhand’, sound and rhythm has made her rediscover percussive and melodic aspects of the tabla in relation with Krishna.  While conceptualising and practising, she would ask herself ‘How can the various leelas come alive in sounds?’, ‘How can I give Radha the voice?’, ‘How can I give Meera the voice?’ Sounds opened up. The percussive and melodic qualities of the tabla evolved in the use of three tablas and two jugalbandis. Among the three, the pakhavaj ang and pancham ang tablas add to the narrative. She discovers the love of Meera for Krishna through Rajasthani folk singing and flute in this production. The three sounds lead Pal to the Aatman, the inner voice, the inner soul.

The majestic celebration of Ganesha, sound and music in Pandit Kanthe Maharaj's rendition of the Ganesh Paran had left an impact on her mind. Krishna ke Taal also celebrates Krishna's birth as performed in the Badhai tradition, using Keherwa taal, cheer and happiness. Pal has made Krishna, Radha and Meera find voices and sound in the tabla. Stop talking about her gender.

4. Explorations: Ganga, Rivers

Artist: Chittrovanu Mazumdar

Work: River of Ideas

Rivers flow into music and art effortlessly. They evoke nostalgia in the ever changing cultural cesspools across the globe. Grammy winning composer Ricky Kej recently re-posted his marvelous track Ganga dedicated to Ganga and its journey, on Facebook, celebrating a million views. Ganga continues to uplift, with its visuals, vocals and music and its viewers are growing. Water in art soothes pain. Sea water is a regular visitor at the Kochi Art Biennale. Used by artists in installations, this time, in Chilean poet Raul Zurita's provocative work The Sea of Pain, sea water slows down, becomes still, rests into text and poetry.

On the floor above this work and its immersive feel, where the viewer is compelled to wade through the water, is artist Chittrovanu Mazumdar’s installation, a sculpture and video installation River of Ideas, drying the cold and wet experience of The Sea of Pain, warming the viewers with the palette of red, gold and black, evoking the Phlegethon, the mythical river of fire. In idea and thought, it is a confluence of Ganga, Saraswati, Seine and many rivers. The sense of immersion in Mazumdar's River of Ideas comes effortlessly.

5. Weapon and Varnam

Artists: Dakshina Vaidyanathan and Padmini Chettur

Triumph of thoughts, choreography and two beautiful young minds. Here are two stories in dance, fierce offshoots of Bharatanatyam, piercing the very core of tradition, performance and spaces, aesthetically and gently. Two stories -- in sahitya and grammar. Two threads that spin a sturdy tale of text and perspectives -- miles and months apart.

Dakshina Vaidyanathan's Treem Trishoolaya, performed earlier this year, and Padmini Chettur's performance at the ongoing Kochi Biennale, where she reinterprets the Varnam. Vaidyanathan celebrates the Trishoola, a weapon, and Chettur unveils a contemporary take, a fresh dimension in gestures and postures. Vaidyanathan meets. Chettur departs. Vaidyanathan narrates. Chettur re-narrates. Vaidyanathan remains within the hemline and textures of tradition, sringara, bhava, costumes and dais. Chettur bursts on the seams of the danceform she was trained in, leaping over to the idea of resistance, at a venue where the audience is free to enter and leave.

Vaidyanathan tries to reflect, Chettur, to convince. Vaidyanathan -- adorned, silks, colours, jewels. Chettur -- movement, muscles and cloth. Vaidyanathan choreographed Treem Trishoolaya, a production in praise of the Trishoola held by Devi, in Divya Astra, a dance festival and concept curated by Usha RK where artists celebrates the divine weapons belonging to the deities, and Chettur, with other dancers, at David Hall, for few hours each day, sitting on chairs in passage bustling with movement, announced and unannounced. Weapon and Varnam.