For the art enthusiasts

As the title suggests the art show in the city, the second edition of Melting Pot is the brainchild of four artists, two of them who live abroad, Barbara Ash, Katarina Rasic, Spanish Indian artist Gayatri Gamuz and PritamBhatty from Uttarakhand.

A travelling show from India to Europe the art project is initiated by two artists with their practice in Bengaluru; a Serbian artist Katarina Rasic, and Barbara Ash from the UK.

Last year they decided to form a working artist collective, and use their international links to connect artists and shows in India, (where they currently work) with their home countries. The art show tries to elicit an image of diverse elements poetically mingling and merging together different experiences that the artists have encountered in their travels, childhood memories and cultural experiences. The oeuvres are visibly transnational, tracing lineages, exploring roots, and morphing disparate histories through a vibrant visual narrative.

References to stereotypes, experiences and significant engagement with the self and the other in versatile environments, feature as central motifs, as do nuanced allusions to India as a nation. Says Katarina Rasic, the artist who hails from Serbia but has made Bengaluru her second home, “I have been here on and off and this city has been a great experience for me. The idea was to think about how to link our heritage with the country. Gayatri too has been staying here for 12 years. I have been thinking about the cultures and the similarities and differences that we have. I find Bengaluru culturally rich.”

Through travelling and experiencing new places, Katarina’s art is constantly changing and developing new levels, exploring different ways of expression, through painting, installation and performance work.  Barbara Ash who hails from the UK shares her tryst with India, “I was invited for a sculpture symposium in Gwalior in 2007 and happened to be in a residency in Bengaluru that’s when I felt at home here. In the exhibition we are all exploring our backgrounds where we come from different positions and exploring our identities.” Barbara’s works are an amalgamation of various figures, people, landscapes and experiences of the mundane and create mindboggling narratives.

Gayatri Gamuz, born in Spain and staying in South India for a great part of her adulthood has a line of amazing artworks for the show. In Her work of art the artist brings different worlds together, drawing on her memories and emotional experiences connected to each; the viewer becomes a spectator to these records of unknown people and places which exude both a sense of alienation and familiarity.

Pritam Bhatty is an Indian artist living and working in Mukteshwar, Uttarakhand. Pritam works in exquisite transparent watercolours, play with devices of concealment and revelation that situate her exploration of a personal history. He captures a sense of solitude within her work most of the themes, emerge from a surreal background, disconnected from it and yet deriving form from its presence.The exhibition is a must watch for its culturally rich embodiment and will pose a question about our relationship with our roots and our cultural heritage.