IMAGEBROKER/ALAMY
I don’t believe in art,
I believe in artists.
MARCEL DUCHAMPartwork? Why do they choose a
particular material or specifi c
vocabulary, and how do people
perceive and experience these
exhibitions? Seeing the artwork
and trying to understand the
artistic dilemmas, challenges,
aspirations, inspirations, and
dialogue, one peels open the
layers of thinking. As we grow
old and evolve, we understand
these words by American-
French artist Marcel Duchamp
better: “I don’t believe in art, I
believe in artists.”
London is perhaps one of
the best cities to view art. On
a recent visit, we made a few
stops for artistic introspection.ONE
Our fi rst memorable stop was
at Serpentine Lake to see the
epic Cristo and Jeanne-Claude
(C&JC) installation. It was
interesting to learn how they
conceived the fi rst Mastaba in
1979; it took almost 40 years to
reach this monumental scale.
The fl oating barrels in the
lake in Hyde Park make up one
of the most epic installations
ever. It’s a momentous event
when you are confronted with
7,506 units, arranged to create a
150-foot-tall sculpture. But wait!
The Instagram pictures don’t do
it any justice.
Cristo and Jeanne-Claude’s
sketches in the Serpentine
Gallery showcase their
determination for this lifelong
project. While they are well
known for their large-scale
wrapping works, this exhibition
focusses on their practice of
using barrels and cans, which
goes back to 1958.
The exhibition makes you
feel tiny in front of their artistic
practice, and their voices echo
as each barrel is chosen to
be one word. The carefully
arranged structures are as
fragile as a poem. Constructing
a mythical façade with the
consumed object also makes you
think of what art is—its politics,
kinship, and craft.
A perfect summer day
with cobalt skies, clouds, andquacking ducks by the lake was
the perfect vista for us. As we
paddled our boat on the lake,
we were not the only ones who
wanted to go up to the barrels
and touch them. The changing
views of the Mastaba, as we
fl oated along with the sculpture,
is a memory that shall linger in
us for a lifetime.
“Pani wich dekh aks us ulfat
de ghar da/Panchi ja baitha
uthe/Bediyan ja milian us koh
no arsan magro.” (Finally, the
day has arrived, the bird can sit
atop a fl oating sculpture. Maybe
one of them is Jeanne-Claude
who has come to inspect the
installation. )TWO
Summer in London is quite
unbelievable, with interesting
exhibitions mounted all over the
city. Even if you are indecisive,
the least you must do is visit
Tate Modern (tate.org.uk). The
super-talented Joan Jonas is a
retrospective at the fourth level
of the new wing that should not
be missed. The presentation
is magical too—the narrative
fl ows eff ortlessly. JJ’s vast body
of work can be seen as chapters
of her lifetime. Her humble
words on the wall are not to bemissed. Take the time to read
them. The works enquire the
basic understanding of scale,
colour, narrative, storytelling,
poetics, politics, gender,
drawing, objects, and painting.
Like a visit to an old home,
the collected objects possess
a certain warmth that echoes
with aff ection. Going back to
her fi rst performance pieces,
Jonas writes eff ortlessly about
her feelings while creating her
works. It’s akin to an open diary.THREE
When at Tate, don’t miss out
on Jordan Wolfson’s Colored
Sculpture. The title is subtle
and almost submissive, while
the work borrows heavily from
representations of boyhood in
popular American culture. A
life-sized polyurethane puppet
is hung by chains and runs on
a programme for 15 minutes
where it’s punished with artistic
liberty. It returns your gaze andutters menacing words. He is
the threat and the victim, all at
once. As you see its plight, you
feel like a trapped mouse, with a
loud radio playing Percy Sledge’s
When a Man Loves a Woman
in bursts of music, but this
version is nothing like you have
ever heard before. Is the work
autobiographical? Certainly, it
has hidden nuances, suspended
anticipation, disappointment,
and heartbreak.
We often think of how
we respond to a work. Our
experiences may vary, and our
age plays an important role.
(There’s nothing quite like
seeing something new as
a child.) Writing about these
three artists and their works,
we felt like we were related to
them—as doting grandparents,
or maybe an aff ectionate
mother, or a brother who lives
out of town—but we woke up to
their silent challenges like they
were our own.The art at Tate Modern is a
must-see when in London.travelandleisureindia.in