[kkstaw--- ;k [kks tkÅ¡ … · It is the festive season now and I am happy to bring to you this delightful show titled Digging Time, curated by Vineet Kacker at Gallery Art Positive.

Should I look for You, Should I lose myself…

VINEET KACKER

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Should I look for You, Should I lose myself…

VINEET KACKER

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Foreword

Dear Friends,

Greetings!

It is the festive season now and I am happy to bring to you this delightful show titled Digging Time, curated by Vineet Kacker at Gallery Art Positive.

A timeline is a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order, the past, present and the future. We can use it to document the past, study our present and imagine the future. Similar is our human mind because we can memorize, maintain and muse! Ceramic and pottery have an important role in archaeology for understanding the culture, technology and behavior of peoples of the past. Scooped out from earth itself, ceramic and pottery associate itself with time, Past Present and Future.

It has been a pleasure working with all the artists and I am thankful to them for their imaginative and ingenious contribution. The art works are indeed a collector’s delight, which I am happy to share with you through this exhibition and the accompanying catalogue.

I hope you will enjoy this show as much as we have in putting it together.

Cheers

Anu Bajaj

The Search to Lose OneselfAn Exploration of the Sacred in the sculpture of Vineet Kacker

‘There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself, and what his place is in the world’ - George Gurdjieff, Views from the Real World,

As one enters the gallery and begins to circumambulate the various sculptures, one is struck by the immediate effect this powerful body of conceptual work. Through this exhibition, Kacker seems to have brought together all of the influences that have touched his life - his early training as an architect, as well as the effect that his travels through the vast landscapes of Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti have had on him.

His first teacher, Mansimran Singh of the Andretta Pottery once told me that when Kacker came to learn pottery with him, it was quickly evident that he was in his ‘element’, and was the fastest learning student he had ever taught. Kacker’s subsequent rigorous training at the Golden Bridge Pottery with Ray Meeker, and in the US and UK on various scholarships and residencies, show in the confidence with which he takes the risks of scale and form, and the ease and flair with which he handles this demanding material. He is undoubtedly one of a handful of ceramists from this part of the world who have developed a definitive personal vocabulary. His work could be said to almost transcend the medium, in a way that the material points back at the maker to reveal his thoughts, his worldview, his quest.

Kacker’s architectural training is evident most clearly in the series of large and small Chortens or Stupas, from the series The Architecture of Dissolution, but it is also evident in the balance and scale of the tall rotating columns, and in the centered stillness of the seated Buddhas. “Chortens are reliquaries that may store actual mortal remains of enlightened beings, but they are also repositories of

wisdom. While in the material world commemorative statues are usually built to laude the achievements of individuals, chortens are built for those who have done the opposite – to attain to a state of dissolution of their individual identity”, explains Kacker. The delicate touch of red silk thread in the detailing at the top of the chortens is evidence of an unusual sensitivity that contrasts beautifully with the strength of the form.

At one end of the gallery one is confronted with the series Silence-Violence, seated Buddhas each holding a weapon - a flame, a Vajra, a Trishul. The scrolls at the back of the Buddhas have thumb prints with the word “violence” written in several of the world’s languages. “Violence is embedded in each one of us, as is silence”, explains Kacker. “Being able to look deeply at the violence we carry, is a first step toward discovering the silence within”.

In Topographies of a Formless World, the wonderful interactive rotating sculptures, Kacker uses sacred symbology from the Buddhist, Hindu and secular worlds in the repetitive imprint of the seated Buddha, the Ardhnareshwar and the lock and key, to “map a formless world”. The columns are treated with glazes in circular patterns that look as if they have been created spontaneously, interspersed with flowing corrugated lines of dark oxide - topographies of another dimension perhaps.

Three large ceramic works from the series Sacred Geology are a reminder to large variegated flowing rocks that were once covered by vast ocean, a fascinating record of time and materiality. Since time immemorial, man has drawn upon and sculpted rocks. In that process he has transferred to them what he has held sacred, turning seemingly inanimate objects into ones that may be held sacred. Kacker uses repetitive stamping and the use of text to invest his own rocks with a certain energy. The clay used is heavily grogged, creating a rich speckled surface. Unexpectedly, nestled in the rough terrain of a large rock of the sacred geology series, there is a poignantly delicate celadon image of a Dakini.

In an earlier show, Kacker had collaborated with the Japanese ceramist Yushi Ito, and his work is clearly imbued with the Zen

Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” | High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”


influences that he encountered in Japan. However, it was when he was a young architectural student and travelled through the higher Himalayas and Bhutan, that he first felt the vastness of the landscape open up something of the possibility of an inner vastness within – a transformative moment. The Himalayan tableaus from the series called The Indeterminate Distance between Aspiration and Alchemy, bring together the forms of nature, landscape, and the aspiration of man. Digital images of Himalayan landscape and architecture are superimposed on a specially prepared textured ground. One can guess at the planning and technique that has gone into the work, but the effect is just as Kacker intends, ‘These tableaus are travelogues through an indeterminable landscape. They articulate the interplay of experiences that thread time, mind, materiality and transcendence”.

Kacker has chosen to express this encounter with himself in his present work in a refreshingly vulnerable way, placing himself quite literally at the center of some of the work. He ‘casts ‘ himself, as it were, into the vast landscape in the video piece, as a seeker in the surrounding stillness. And then again in the guise of a meditating mendicant within a series of caves. He is fascinated with the journey that takes a man from the horizontal, the linear, the outer, to the vertical, cyclical, inner. Geography, the linear and Time, the cyclical, intersect at the point of those perennial questions – Who am I? Why am I here? And the core question, Should I look for You…or should I lose myself?

In his description of the different series there is a recurring motif, that of the ‘mark’ of time in paradoxical relationship with the ‘encounter with the ancient and the magical’. Man has, for millennia, created a symbiotic sacrality, one in which that which is held sacred in turn radiates out energy. Kacker does this through his own work imbuing the clay with the mark of both time and the sacred.

‘ ….The magic of great art lies in its own living quality, its own individual life which makes us would-be actors in the mysteries of its own life’ - Svetoslav Roerich, Art and Life.

Jyoti Singh, 2016Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” | High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”

In all spiritual traditions, two distinct paths are suggested to those who are thirsty to know that which, in its essence, is unknowable. One is the path of prescribed practices, guiding rules and tenets. The path of “gyana”, or knowledge, uses engagement with spiritual texts and practices to gradually deepen the understanding of the practitioner. The other path is the path of “bhakti”, or devotion. The first is likened to learning how to swim – as one’s technique develops, one can navigate with ease waters that seemed mysterious, unknowable, even threatening. “Bhakti”, however, is likened to a willingness to drown - to surrender all that one holds dear to oneself, whatever may be the consequences. And what technique is needed for that?

Vineet Kacker, 2016

Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”

Facing page:Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”






Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” | High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows” | High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”



Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows”

High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”





Time Tableau “Yesterdays were once Tomorrows”

High fired ceramic | 52” x 17.5” x 2.5”



Select Exhibitions

2016 “Khojun….Ya Kho Jaun”, Gallery Art Positive, concurrent to the India Art Fair

2015 “Forms of Devotion”, Lalit Kala, New Delhi and China Art Museum, Shanghai

2015 “digging TIME”, curated by Vineet Kacker, at Gallery art Positive, New Delhi

2014 “Colorful Wonderful”, ceramics from India and Korea, Yido Gallery, Seoul

2013 India Museum of contemporary ceramics, FULE, Fuping, Shaanxi, China

2013 “Traditions Evolving”, NCECA, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.2012 “Aham”, India Art Fair 2012, represented by Gallery Art

Positive, New Delhi 2011 International Artists’ Exhibition, 4th EdgeArt Invitational, Izmir,

Turkey2011 “Form and Formless”, Gallery Art Positive, New Delhi2010 “Golden Earth”, Contemporary Ceramics from India and

Australia India Habitat Center, New Delhi 2008 “( R )evolution”, Museum Gallery, presented by the Fine Art

Company, Mumbai2008 “Indo-Korean Contemporary Ceramics”, Inko Centre Chennai

and Gallerie Nvya, New Delhi2007 “Tokonome Ceramic Art Festival”, Aichi, Japan 2007 “Here There Now” Gallery Soulflower, Bangkok, Thailand 2007 “Skin of Asias”, special exhibition curated for the International Ceramic Biennale, Icheon, South Korea2006 “Vineet Kacker / Yushi Ito”, Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi2006 “Indo-Swedish Art Glass Sambandh”, Ostergotlands

Lansmuseum, Linkoping, Sweden India Habitat Centre, New Delhi2005 “Spirit / Space”, Artists’ Centre, Mumbai2004 “Speaking in Sutras”, Nature Morte, New Delhi

Awards /Honours/Memberships

2015 Elected Member, International Academy of Ceramics, Geneva

2015 Invited as International Demonstrator at the International Ceramic Festival 2015, Aberystwyth, Wales, UK

2013 Invited to make work for the India Museum as a part of FULE International Art Museums, Xian, China

2010 Membership, International Ceramic Artists Association, Zibo, China

2008 Membership, Artist Pension Trust, New York - Mumbai2004 Invited to Sweden to participate in the Indo-Swedish Glass

collaborative program2001 McKnight Artist Residency, Northern Clay Center, Minneapolis,

Minnesota2001 Fulbright Travel Grant award, to work and travel in the U.S.1998 Charles Wallace Fellowship, British Council, New Delhi 1998 Artist Residency award, Anderson Ranch Arts Centre,

Colorado, U.S.A.

Collections

• Museum of Sacred Art, Radhadesh, Belgium

• India Museum, Fule International Museum Coplex, Fuping, Shaanxi, China

• Sanat Galerisi, Ataturk Kultur Merkezi, Izmir, Turkey

• Li Ziyuan Ceramic Art Museum of the International Ceramic Artists Association, Zibo, China

• Quingdao Art Museum, Quingdao, China

• World Ceramic Center, Icheon, South Korea

• Tokoname International Association, Aichi Pref., Japan

• Aberystwyth University Ceramic Archival Collection, Aberystwyth, U.K.

Acknowledgements

Gallery Art Positive is known for its focus on seminal exhibitions and other art initiatives, working with both the young and established artists. Building on the in-house expertise of Bajaj Capital Ltd, a wealth management company with a fifty year track record, Art Positive expanded its services some five years ago, as a unit of Bajaj Capital Art House (BCAH), to include the business of art as a holistic initiative. Ranging from organizing special shows to online exhibitions, master classes, personalized portfolios, art education initiatives as well as advice on buying, selection, display, insurance, handling, care and conservation of art, Art Positive, is also engaged in specialized and personalized art advisory services to a wide spectrum of collectors and institutions, both locally and globally.

Incorporating an expansive 5000 square feet of state-of-the-art designed display area, spread across two floors and located in Lado Sarai, the latest art hub in the capital city. Curated solo and group exhibitions of seminal work by masters from across the country and cutting edge art in varied modes, media and prices, are held in the gallery. Its annual Art Spotting exhibition, now in its third edition, features short listed Art Positive & BCAH Arts Fellowship Award applicants’ work, and is a unique platform for promising young artists to exhibit in a prestigious gallery while the final winner of the rupees one lac BCAH art award gets to work for a solo show hosted by the gallery.

Gallery Profile

Gallery Art Positive F-213/B, Lado Sarai, Old MB Road, New Delhi 110030

E: [email protected] M: 09953520170 / T: 011-46604128 W: www.galleryartpositive.com Prin

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[kkstaw--- ;k [kks tkÅ¡ … · It is the festive season now and I am happy to bring to you this delightful show titled Digging Time, curated by Vineet Kacker at Gallery Art Positive.

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