Asian art is more dynamic and exciting: Curator Maya Kovskaya

Aptly titled Excrescence —meaning abnormal growth and mutation — Maya Kovskaya’s first show in Mumbai features a mix of Indian and Chinese art.

“I picked the concept of excrescence because it offered an umbrella concept that encompassed a constellation of metaphors for out of control, abnormal growth, proliferation and mutation,” explains Kovskaya. The show features works by artists Ashutosh Bharadwaj, Gaozhong Wu, Han Bing, Prajakta Potnis, Rohini Devasher, Sheba Chachhi and Tushar Jaog.

The diversity in the works, she says, adds “richness” by sparking off a conversation that creates a space for the viewer to have a critical distance from the metaphors of excrescence  —“thereby helping us reclaim a space for rethinking our relationship to these processes that often make us feel so small and helpless, and reminding us that they are humanly made and can thus be humanly changed.”

Based in Delhi and Beijing, Kovskaya has already worked on shows in several places like Delhi, Kochi, Beijing, Toronto, Vancouver, Manchester, Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbia South Carolina, Houston, Paris, Brussels, etc, in the past. These artists, says Kovskaya, “speak in their own ways to those anxieties of the contemporary era, and meditate on, or illuminate these metaphors in some particular concrete form.”

Kovskaya feels that there are many similarities as well as differences between Indian and Chinese art. “For all the political and cultural differences that make India and China seem like adversaries, the real human predicaments and challenges being faced by ordinary people in both the places are profoundly the same — rapid urbanisation and modernisation; class and gender inequalities; corruption, land-grabbing; environmental destruction; and incursions of powerful multinationals.” Hence, she concludes that both Indian and Chinese art highlight the need for “more dialogue and cooperation in the Pan-Asian context.”

Kovskaya hails from California, but has been based in Asia for the past 15 years. This has helped her build bridges across the two regions. “Art from this part of the world is far more dynamic and exciting than what is being produced in the moribund so-called ‘west’ of Euro-America,” she asserts.