Durgabai Vyam: The Bhopal Disaster, 2007-08
Exhibition Preview: Through Other Eyes: Contemporary Art from South Asia at The Herbert Coventry from January 23 to April 19 2009.
An exciting new 140-piece exhibition of emerging south Asian artists is to take place at the new-look Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry.
The curator Gerard Mermoz spent three months travelling around India and Pakistan to search for emerging artists for the exhibition and discovered a group of artists who were coming to terms with traditions, values, beliefs, tensions and aspirations in the wake of globalisation.
“The day I walked out of the Pakistan embassy in Delhi to collect my visa, the former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was shot so my contact advised me not to come for two weeks," he said.
“The day before I arrived there was a big blast killing 50 people near the art college I was visiting. It was dangerous but they took outstanding care of me and put me in a top secure hotel and drove me everywhere."
Vidya Kamat: Birth Mark, 2007
He added: “I was interested in looking at South Asian art before it gets entangled with the commercial sector."
Because he wanted the art in the exhibition to be from different from much of the art found in the predominantly commercially driven galleries of India Mermoz selected most of the artists from art colleges.
As a result there are no artists involved in the exhibition aged above 30 except for the tribal artists who are older. A substantial proportion are also women, which Mermoz didn’t anticipate when he set out to put the collection together.
Muzummil Ruheel: Jumbish (Movement), 2007
“These artists work on their own," he added, "so to see themselves in context of an exhibition they were very appreciative of the fact that they were able to see what other artists are doing elsewhere in their countries. It was a unifying factor and selling their work is a great boost to their confidence.
“I’m encouraging them to work collectively to add another dimension to their education."
There will be a packed events programme to run alongside the exhibition and the Herbert will then be touring the exhibition.
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