As I passed the shuttered doors of the Bodhi Art
Gallery in Bombay on my last visit to the city, I wondered why better
sense hadn't prevailed with the management, to create a business module
that could have proved far more effective than the "blitz in your face"
hype that is now like a spent phataka in the morning after.
Genuine contributions to the longevity of the history of gallery
practices in India cannot be achieved by a fly-by-night association
ever, and those that came into the business only for the sweepstakes
windfall of moola that contemporary art represented for them, are today
running like mice from what they imagine is a sinking ship! Oops what
indignity after that boastful chest thumping foray that we were witness
to by the likes of these self proclaimed trail blazers!
The
Bodhi Art Gallery always seemed slightly suspect to me in their
intentions, and I was often surprised at the way many of my colleagues
rushed to join the bandwagon of super stardom promised by the "big
money" waved as temptation from this garden of Eden. I was hugely
amused when on meeting me, the director of Bodhi boastfully claimed
that he was "finally teaching the Indian art Galleries how to operates
correctly!" If ferrying a plane load of socialites to Baroda as an
audience for an exhibition was the paradigm to be followed, then I am
truly glad that these "lessons" were well ignored by other galleries as
bench marks of supposed success!
Being
around as long as I have, I must admit that I am not too easily taken
in by those who come into the gallery circuit, spinning illusions of
instant fame to artists through grand gestures of hyped stardom. These
con acts are normally ruses to lure the insecure, and are a bit like
pyramid schemes which promise you dreams beyond your imagination, and
then leave you betrayed at the end. The shutters are down on the dreams
spun by Bodhi art Gallery leaving many artists wondering why the
dazzling lights went off so suddenly!
Bollywood
wasn't ever my calling and art is a practice that doesn't need the
flashbulbs of page three to endorse your truth as an artist. It's not a
ratings game dear friends. Paying for publicity and posing as the Aamir
Khan of the art world with designer glasses and Gucci shoes is cute,
but cannot be passed of as history in the making; nor hopping around
with a cocktail glass as a permanent fixture, desperately trying to
catch the photo moment either!
I
hope that the locked doors of Bodhi Art Gallery serve as a warning to
the Indian artists that big talk and grand gestures are best believed
only when sustained. The clink of empty cocktail glasses make a hollow
sound and show up their chips and cracks without the camouflage of our
own desperation. It's high time to roll up the imaginary red carpet
that you think is beneath your feet, and with it roll up your sleeves
instead. There is no substitute for good old fashioned humility and
hard work, and let's raise a toast to that!
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