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Vivan Sundaram: More than an artist

Artist, activist, historian — Vivan Sundaram is all these and more. An ongoing exhibition proves that he is unstoppable, says art consultant Farah Siddiqui

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Vivan Sundaram holds a very special place among cerebral contemporary artists – continuously evolving, experimenting and pushing boundaries. One of India's pioneering installation and video artists, Sundaram crossed over seamlessly in the 1990s from a 30-year practice of painting towards new path-breaking and precedent-defying art making experiences.

He is one artist who has constantly challenged himself. He plays several roles at one time — artist, rebel, activist, archivist, curator and historian — bringing fresh insights to bridging the synapses between the past and the future.

POSTMORTEM (after Gagawaka), Sundaram's recently opened exhibition at Gallery Chemould, Mumbai (open until January 3, 2015) proves once again that the visionary artist is still unstoppable. The exhibition is an extension of the artist's series in 2012, Gagawaka: Making Strange. With installations of fashion garments made from discarded materials, he played around with the phrase "making strange", alluding to alienation in contemporary times from the famous nonconformist poet and playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Ideas of recycling, skill, craft, and the Duchampian readymade have always interested the artist, directing his work to innovative conceptual realm. The philosophy of Sundaram's work resonates with impermanence of materials that are constantly in flux, being destroyed and regenerated. Provoking the viewer into engaging with the art work, Sundaram comments on social and political history, contemporary environment and critically examines the role of the artist. He has, in his extensive career, worked with a wide range of mediums — painting, installation, assemblage, photography, digital media and film, where the material suggests various meanings and evocation.

As an impresario, Sundaram initiated the Kasauli Art Centre in 1976, a platform for fostering exchanges between Indian and international creatives.

Sundaram has always rebelled against authoritarianism. His persona and art cannot be separated from his relationship to social activism, politics and sense of history. During the early 1970s, he was actively involved with various student movements. After the brutal murder of activist and playwright Safdar Hashmi in New Delhi in 1989, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (Sahmat), an open platform for politically and socially conscious artists, writers, poets, musicians, actors and activists was formed, of which Sundaram is a founder member and trustee.

Many of his exhibitions have been landmark projects on a multidimensional and ambitious scale. In 1998, Sundaram conceived a massive installation titled Revisiting Structures of Memory: Modern Bengal at the Durbar Hall in Kolkata's Victoria Memorial. The building, which was built to commemorate the peak of the British Empire in India, now houses one of the largest libraries in Asia. In his characteristic maverick approach, Sundaram's site-respective installation was an alternative look at history, juxtaposing artefacts of the colonial period whilst throwing suggestions with references to cinema.

Another spectacular work by Sundaram was at the inaugural edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in 2012. Titled Black Gold, the installation was made up of 2,000-year-old terracotta shards of pottery, taken directly from the archaeological site of Pattanam in Muziris to create an imaginary city. The piece, which was one of the talking points of the biennale and was juxtaposed with a video work by the artist, created a multidimensional visual experience.

With a number of international exhibitions and participations in prestigious biennales such as the ones in Berlin, Sharjah, Havana and Johannesburg, Sundaram is now keenly looking forward to his first solo museum exhibition in the US at The Fowler Museum at UCLA. The curators Miwon Kwon and Saloni Mathur will present over 60 art works from Gagawaka : Making Strange and POSTMORTEM (after Gagawaka). A week later at another space at the same museum will open the critically acclaimed exhibition The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989, thus completing Sundaram's vivid and awe-aspiring journey as an artist and activist under one roof.

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