IN-PERSON: Applying Education

Abstract

This study suggests an ‘intersectional third space’ as a conceptual framework to rethink the existing value creation systems and representation methods prevalent within contemporary art from India. As contemporary art worldwide becomes increasingly identified as ‘global’ and accommodates new art practices and mediums, it remains exclusive in treating art from self-taught and Indigenous art practices. This distinction gets further pronounced in geographies like India, where artists rely greatly on private galleries for their representation. The artists from rural regions, artists practicing Indigenous or tribal art and passionate artists who do not have the resources or opportunities to attend art schools lose out on access to representation in mainstream art spaces. In the exhibition ‘Sheher, Prakriti, Devi’ that took place at Gallerie Mirchandani + Steinrucke, Mumbai, India, between November 25, 2021 – January 5, 2022, Gauri Gill, an artist formally trained in art and photography; Vinnie Gill, a self-taught painter with practice of over sixty years and Ladhki Devi, a Warli artist who learned art practices as familial heritage exhibit aspects of world-making in varying categories of formality. I interviewed the artists in an attempt to deduce the exchange of values and opportunities this collaboration brought to them. I further supported my findings with existing scholarly research. I propose the concept of an ‘intersectional third space’— one that dismantles the existing institutional structures of representation and accommodates multiple notions of art. I discuss the significance and relevance of such alliances in India and conclude with what the artists and cultural practitioners can hope to achieve from a space that redefines ‘contemporary’ art in India.