PRESS RELEASE
SIGNS TAKEN FOR WONDERS
DATES: 5 December – January 31, 2009
OPENING: 4 December, 18.30 – 21.00
Contemporary Indian Art is in production. Narratives of the emergence of 'Indian Art' have
circulated for some time, in particular from auction houses and art fairs – but it would seem that
another stage is now being reached, that of the appearance of large-scale survey shows at museumsaround the world. For example this winter sees 'Indian Highway' at London's Serpentine Galleryand 'Chalo! India: A New Era of Indian Art' at Japan's Mori Art Museum. This is a pivotal
moment in the construction of new object of knowledge, as curators, writers and galleries
articulate what will become part of art history. Yet with its multiplicity of languages, its multidenominational make-up and its vast contradictions, 'India' itself has a certain resistance to anystraightforward process of being 'produced'. How then to build in a corrective that both constructsa discourse yet is reflexive; that produces knowledge whilst placing a question mark next to it?
In his chapter "Signs Taken For Wonders: Questions of ambivalence and authority under a tree in
Delhi, May 1817", Homi Bhabha takes the reader on a dazzling tour of how an object of authority,
the Bible, is circulated through India in the early 19th century. Through this circulation it is
misread, translated, distorted and displaced as an object of knowledge. For example, the natives
are happy to be baptized but are unhappy about the Sacrament because the Europeans are known to
eat cow's flesh. Bhabha finishes with a quotation from a missionary who realizes that the demand
for the book might not be entirely linked to a new-found faith: "Still everyone would gladly
receive a Bible? And why? That he may store it up as a curiosity; sell it for a few piece; or use it
for waste paper…"
It is this spirit of a simultaneous proffering of knowledge whilst questioning that very knowledge
that underpins this exhibition of recent art from India and Pakistan at the Aicon Gallery. A number
of the works use misrecognition as a trope, or undermine initial, cursory readings – these include
Raqs Media Collective's work from the 'Misregistation Series' and Amjad Ali Talpur's works.
Others offer personal, intimate visions of subjectivity and identities – such as Riyas Komu's
'Borivali Boy II' and 'M.F. Husain's 'Women from Yemen', in place of any grand sweeping
statement about what this new object of knowledge, 'Indian Art' might be. And the inclusion of
artists from Pakistan questions that very term anyhow. An identity is emerging – but like the figure
in Bose Krishnamachari's haunting work 'Mumbiya', the closer you get to it, the more it
disappears.
Aicon Gallery, 8 Heddon Street, London W1B 4BU
Tel: +44 20 7734 7575, Fax: +44 20 7734 0090, london@aicongallery.com
www.aicongallery.com
Signs Taken For Wonders is an exhibition highlighting recent works by specific Indian and
Pakistani contemporary artists.
Artists included in the show include MF Husain, Adeela Suleman, Amjad Ali Talpur, Atul Bhalla,
Bose Krishnamachari, Chintan Upadyay, GR Iranna, Justin Ponmany, Muhammed Zeeshan, Raqs
Media Collective, Riyas Komu, Sajal Sarkar, Shibu Natesan, Talha Rathore, TV Santosh and
Vivek Vilasini.
For further press information and visuals, please contact
Rhiannon Pickles on rhiannon@picklespr.com Tel: +44 20 7096 8809 / mobile: +31 6158 21202
or
Rachel Phillipps on rachel@picklespr.com Tel: +44 20 7820 1294 / mobile: +44 7834 904 571
Aicon Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 6pm.
Tel: +44 20 7734 7575 / email: london@aicongallery.com