6 students from University of Hyderabad create artworks that reflect society
While students across different streams celebrate the end of their semester in various ways, the third semester students of printmaking, department of fine arts, S.N. School, University of Hyderabad, marked it with an end semester open studio exhibition.
Six students displayed a variety of work that evoked emotions and memories, and definitely made you think about your existence.
What set this exhibition apart was the excellent use of space. Guest faculty, Diptej Vernekar who was one of the guides for the show, says, “Through this exhibition we wanted to justify the use of space, it wasn’t just about the artwork. We wanted to see how artwork can be a part of this space and how space can be a part of this work.”
(Above left) Divesh Gadekar’s audio installation; Probhash’s projection work; Anju Chandran’s installation.
The exhibition that was open to public, saw a mix of media used. Take for instance the work of Divesh Gadekar. From the first look, it seems like any other chair with two speakers to the side, but Divesh explains. “When one sits on the chair, they can hear two kinds of sounds from the left and right speaker. I worked with sound for this project and for an entire semester I collected sounds of the university’s ambience and from the roads outside. This was to show the stark difference in both the worlds. For me, the university is peaceful, but the world outside is noisy and that was the contrast that my work shows,” he says.
(Below, from left to right) Probhash, Tanaya, Gautham, Anju Chandran, Mannan Sheikh and (sitting) Divesh
As you walk past that, you can’t miss the seemingly ordinary cupboard; the only difference is that this one makes noise. Artist Tanaya Kundu who works around the topic of violence and women’s issue says, “My works speak out against the stereotyping and objectifying of a feminine body, I try to question the issues of inequality and oppression in my endeavours.” The cupboard that was part of her work made the sounds of someone scratching. “A cupboard is something that is available in every household, it is a place where we save our day-to-day objects. But sometimes, we hide very intimate things like violence against women and this is just a showing of that,” she explains.
Artists made great use of objects and space that one would usually look past in any other situation.
Artist Probhash Sarkar who used an old sink for his video art says, “I used an old sink and then projected a video onto it. The artwork was created to show the different layers of transparency of human beings. Every person has a dual nature, one inside and the other that people see. My passion is to explore the various facets of human nature through art,” he explains.
