PRESS RELEASE
Who knew? Mr. Gandhi
31 January – 05 March 2008
Opening 30 January, 6.30 – 9.00
It is sixty years since Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th 1948 outside his home in Delhi.
India has since changed politically, economically and socially in ways that would perhaps be unrecognizable to him were he now to return, but which exist as a direct result of his legacy.
Gandhi inspired many of the world's greatest freedom fighters, including Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, who fought for equality following his dictum of non-violence. Gandhi is still revered the world over, and his birth date has been adopted by the United Nations as the International Day of Non-Violence.
The works exhibited in Who knew? Mr. Gandhi by Vivek Vilasini, Kriti Arora, Gigi Scaria and Debanjan Roy explore Gandhi's significance in the India of today. The exhibition investigates how the subcontinent has changed since Gandhi's death, how the memory of him has evolved with time and how the significance and meaning of the word 'Gandhi' has in cases become distorted into a means of selling and promoting consumer goods or political ideas. As such, the many different Gandhis presented in this exhibition could be understood as a metaphor for the many faces of India of today.
Raise your hands those who have touched him is a video project by Gigi Scaria who interviewed and filmed eighteen people who had met and spoken with Gandhi during his final days in Delhi. The project is an attempt to pin down valuable evidence of a character in danger of being lost, due to what the artist has termed 'historical amnesia'.
Vivek Vilasini's photographs of the many statues of Gandhi across India present a multitude of versions seen – sometimes Gandhi is garlanded, sometimes bespectacled; he sits, walks, thinks and smiles - each image presenting a different manifestation of the same man. Other photographs by Vilasini explore how the image of Gandhi has become an advertising tool for goods such as clothing, food and drink, an example of how the notion of 'Gandhi' is transformed and used by contemporary India. The works also say much about the position of the media in India, and especially of the tussle between traditional values and globalization.
Debanjan Roy's brightly coloured sculptures, aptly entitled 'India Shining', highlight how India has changed since Gandhi's death. The sculptures depict him interacting with symbols of modernity incongruous with the man himself: Gandhi sits working at a laptop or conversing into a mobile phone. Whilst the objects are evidently from an age different from his, they are symbolic of much of India's economic power and independence from former colonizers, changes that Gandhi is granted much credit for.
Kriti Arora's film and photographic works explore the emotional resonances of the Partition, which caused the largest migration of people in the history of civilisation. Her work speaks of the importance of heritage, and of an Indian identity without the weight of the religious barriers that Gandhi was so adamantly against.
Please Click the Links Below to Download the Artist Bios
KRITI ARORA Bio. PDF
DEBANJAN ROY Bio. PDF
GIGI SCARIA Bio. PDF
VIVEK VILASINI Bio. PDF