exhibit c

 
 

exhibit b

 
 

exhibit a

village voice review of Superficial Engagement
http://www.villagevoice.com/art/0605,saltz,71953,13.html

Superficial Engagement Thomas Hirschhorn

Superficial Engagement by Thomas Hirschhorn
Saw a very powerful exhibit at Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea, this weekend. It is a series of platforms exploring the intersection of the destruction of war and the creation of art. Created by multi media artist, Thomas Hirschhorn who was born in 1957, in Bern, Switzerland, and now lives and works in Paris.
The work is composed of found imagery and texts, bound up in constructions of cardboard, foil and packing tape. His work is inspired by Emma Kunz, a Swiss artist, healer and medium, and his own interest with nail and wire crafts. His work is an optical assault meant to override the terror and oppression of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with images of beauty. His four platforms create differentiated spaces dealing with war and beauty. The artist believes that to go deeply into something he needs to start at the surface. "The truth of things, its own logic, is reflected on the surface". He tries to understand the world through fashion adds and photojournalism.
The images of the two naked fashion models with nails all over them, was very powerful, as were the image of the lone man and a group of hands that normally would model diamond rings littered with nails all over them. Juxtaposed with these naked images were pictures of dead, bloodied men massacred at war, and lots of news sound bytes "like a man for the people" and "no cause for panic".
The exhibit was packed with people, but everyone was silent as they tried to take in all that the artist was trying to say.

chelsea street

 
 

Danish Cartoons of Prophet Mohammed

Danish Cartoons of Prophet Mohammed
The controversy, which has angered the Middle East and South Asia, began when the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published the cartoons in September. The newspaper's editors had asked 12 artists to draw their depictions of Muhammad after an author had complained that he could not find an artist willing, under his or her own name, to illustrate a book about the prophet.
See the cartoons in the link below.
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698
Under Islamic teachings, any depiction of Prophet Mohammad, the faith's founder and messenger of God, is blasphemy, including depictions that are not negative. The cartoons violated that, and many of them also ridiculed the Prophet.
I am for free speech, but as long as it is not offensive. In the images above, I do find some of them offensive. In one, the Prophet, is depicted as a terrorist, with his turban holding a bomb with burning fuse. The message it sends out is people wearing turbans are dangerous terrorists. This creates problems for many people of the Sikh religion as well, where turbans and beards are mandatory for Sikh men.
I think its unfair when a majority mocks a minority. The newspapers' printing of the cartoons is a dangerous incitement in a conflict that has already alienated the growing Muslim populations of West European nations.
The only time Denmark and the rest of Europe took the anger in the Muslim world seriously, was when the sales of their Ala grocery product came to a complete halt, and they had to sack 100 people.
I don’t think people should die for cartoons, but the West should think before they instigate and upset Muslim and other minority communities, creating wide repercussions. The gulf is growing wider day by day between the America, Europe and the rest of the world. The way this controversy is going to be handled will reflect how the bridge is, or is not going to be mended.

rang de basanti

Rang de basanti
Saw a wonderful Hindi movie, at imaginasian, after a long time in NY. We tried seeing it on Saturday night, but it was houseful at 7 pm, and people were queuing up to buy tickets for the 9 pm show. We bought tickets in the am for a 7 pm show on Sunday, when we got in at 7 it was houseful and we had to sit on the third row.
A few minutes after we sat down in the center of the third row, we had a nice Indian gentleman ask us if we could move. My friend looked at him straight in the face and said we sat here for a reason, we can’t move!!
I had no idea, what the movie was about so I came in with no expectations. It was a beautifully made film, set in Delhi and Punjab.
It had an interesting, unexpected story line, and a nice juxtaposition of the past and the present. The dialogue was catchy, with a lot of Punjabi slang like chuck de Pathe, thrown in.

Director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra merges two plots in Rang De Basanti. The first is about a group of friends, their bonding, the carefree lifestyle they lead. The second plot deals about the past, when freedom fighters sacrificed their lives during the pre-independence era. The director draws comparisons between British rule and present day India ruled by corrupt politician.
The transition of the five friends from meaningless to meaningful existence is done very well. The director shows sepia images of Bhagat Singh, Chandra Shekhar Azad and Ashfak, with images of the current day revolutionaries, and then at the end of the movie both those different narratives became interchangeable.
Sue (Alice Patten), a young, London-based film-maker, who comes to India to make a movie on the revolutionaries is very good . Its nice to see a foreigner not portrayed as a stereotypical caricature.
The five friends are all wonderful, they are DJ (Aamir Khan), Karan (Siddharth), Aslam (Kunal Kapoor), Sukhi (Sharman Joshi), Sonia (Soha Ali Khan) and Laxman (Atul Kulkarni).
A.R. Rahman’s music is ordinary. Cinematography (Binod Pradhan) is outstanding. The lensman captures the essence of Delhi beautifully.
Amir Khan holds the movie together, by getting into the skin of the character.