Visions of the World

Convener: Prashant Parikh
Artists: Akbar Padamsee, Alwar Balasubramaniam, Baiju Parthan, Bhupen Khakhar, Dhruva Mistry, Gieve Patel, Jogen Chowdhury, K.G. Subramanyan, Sonia Khurana, and Sudarshan Shetty
Chairs: Prabodh Parikh and Abhay Sardesai

January 28 to 29, 2003 | 10.00 am to 6.00 pm
Little Theatre, National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai

Concept Note: Prashant Parikh

Everyone has a worldview. Typically, this is a more or less articulate, more or less structured, more or less abstract, more or less informed view of small segments of the world. The world as a whole is far too complex and humankind in the twentieth century has produced far too much knowledge for any single person to have a detailed and comprehensive grasp of it. Yet it is in this insuperable context that we have to form a vision of the world if we are to act intelligently and effectively in it.

There are many ways to tackle the challenge of forming a vision of the world. One route is to develop general insights into aspects of the world. Each field, based on its ideas, its materials, and its practices, affords a cluster of intuitions about the field itself, but also a way of approaching the world beyond its horizons. Art is no different and it is its unique constellation of insights and perceptions that we are after here.

One obvious way to uncover these ideas is to ask artists and critics directly. We will investigate the worldviews of artists in this conference. To elicit these worldviews, we will organize each conversation around a set of questions. The questions sometimes overlap, but they approach the same issue from different vantage points.

Questions:

1. What, according to you, is art? What is the place of art in the world? Does this role change with time or does it remain the same? How do your answers relate to Indian art? To art today? To your own work?

2. What made you decide to be an artist? What are its satisfactions? Its problems?

3. How do you arrive at a decision about what artwork to make? Its formal aspects? Its content? The process you will use? The context you will relate your artwork to?

4. What role does nature play in your art? How do you think of nature?

5. How do you see the relation between art and reason? Art and emotion? Art and philosophy? Art and science? Art and society? Art and politics? Art and commerce? How does your own work relate to these things?

6. How does your art relate to reality?

7. What is your conception of modernity? In the world? In India? How do you see the relation between art and modernity? Indian art and modernity? Your own work and modernity?

8. What do you see as the relation between “high” and “low” art? How do you see its course historically? What do you think the relation is today? In India? In the world? What do you think of the rise of visual culture/visual studies departments and journals?

9. What art of the twentieth century do you think will remain in the public consciousness at the end of the twenty-first century? Why? What do you see as the emerging trends in contemporary art in India? In the world?

10. What, according to you, are the three most pressing problems facing India today?

11. What, according to you, are the three most pressing problems in the world today?

12. What, according to you, are the three most pressing problems in the artworld today? In India? In the world?

13. What type of art criticism do you like? Why?

14. Who are some of your favorite artists? Why? How do they affect your art?

15. Who are some of your favorite writers of fiction and nonfiction? How do they affect your art?

16. Are there activities other than art that you pursue? How does this affect your art?

17. Can you identify a single unified way you adopt to view the world?