With the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, like most fairs across the world, Frieze London too has decided to go the virtual route. A wide array of forms, mediums and styles can be seen on the online viewing rooms of international galleries. Indian galleries too are adding to the discourse on how artists are interpreting the changes taking place in the world today, with their deeply personal takes on politics, gender, the environment and more. While Experimenter focuses on the body and its relationship with the space around it with Radhika Khimji, Praneet Soi, and others, Nature Morte showcases Jitish Kallat’s immersive installation, Covering Letter (terranum nuncius), as part of the Frieze Focus section, 'Possessions', curated by Zoe Whitley. The one thread that emerges from the various showcases is the focus on colour and materiality. Galleries are using this to talk about personal stories of resilience, as is evident in Vadehra Art Gallery’s display of Benodebehari Mukherjee’s rare paper-cut collages created after he lost his eyesight, or an exploration of the spiritual that Jhaveri Contemporary is showing with Prafulla Mohanti’s solo display. Then there is Project 88’s selection, which looks at painting as a labour of deep affection and attention.
With works by artists like Velu Vishwanadhan, Mahesh Baliga, Prabhakar Kolte, Neha Choksi and Amitesh Shrivastava, colour and materiality seems to be at the heart of the Project 88 showcase. These then become conduits to talk about tectonic shifts both in the artistic process and in the world around us. According to Sree Banerjee Goswami, the selection of works brings about different understandings of the medium of painting. “It was important to pitch the act of painting, the varied approaches, and how colour and process becomes a conduit to emotions in these very strange and difficult times,” she says. Painting then creates a ground for possibilities where the optic and the haptic meet. “It is where colour becomes matter-flow and the maker and the created are on the same plane,” Goswami adds.
