susanalf: GOD Show, Pune (India) 2014

GOD SHOW,

Pune (India) 2014

from 14th to 21st, December, 2014.

As a child growing up in a lower middle class brahmin family, the only way to assure oneself of a good afterlife was to engage in rituals and religious practices that celebrated the unique attributes of the 333 million gods in the hindu pantheon. Living and traveling in the United Kingdom and Europe, the past 25 years have been an introduction to alternative religious practices, icons and diverse representations of ‘GOD’. Presented with so many alternative approaches, it can result in a disconnect, a sense of floating around rudderless. This is the beginning point for this show. This show is a platform to generate dialogue and find out current interpretations on the concept of ‘GOD’. It is refreshing to encounter Joseph Turnbull’s challenge for the show “So I will try and post the artwork to India without a stamp and see if it gets there with the help of GOD. If it arrives GOD is real, if it doesn't arrive GOD is not real”.

by Rekha Sameer.

The best art from London.

by Lorenzo Belenguer

Lorenzo Belenguer, Spain

"Jesus' Last Supper as a Human Being"

Media: Oils on metal on paper

Why International?

Religion and GOD are subjects that can create strong volatile emotions in people. We know artists in India, who have previously taken creative license in their depiction of gods and goddesses, have been lynched publicly and forced to flee the country. It is therefore no surprise that this pressure and expectation from society has led to a rise in ‘safe’ art. Art that doesn’t question and challenge tends to lose its edgy role, that of unsettling apathy in current attitudes. The West offers an open culture where artists can challenge, question and mock current practices and create a rich platform for critical dialogue and encourage new perspectives into current attitudes and thinking.

I hope the artworks in this show will go beyond its aesthetic and commercial value and instead transfer this questioning attitude into the viewer.

By Rekha Sameer.

Vanya Balogh & Vanja Karas

Why Pune?

Pune is a bustling metropolis and is characterised typically by a villager in his dhoti and Nehru cap, bare feet passing through busy wifi zones , students with their headphones, mobiles and rucksacks, the elderly strolling to temples and ashram and foreigners walking purposefully to the yoga centers dotted around Pune. In a city and in a country where religion occupies a significant role in the everyday lives of the people, having an art exhibition showing responses from different parts of the western world on GOD could bring a refreshing change into the existing rhythm.

By Rekha Sameer.