Artists Defy Convention and Contest Theories

39 artists come together in the exhibition, 'The Panorama Beyond the Colour Line', to look at representation

- Abhilasha Ojha

Mumbai-based artist and curator Prabhakar Kamble's Broken Foot, a sculpture in wood, makes viewers stop in their tracks. With its deep gash, the artwork is a reminder of how the foot, in "Varnashram"—an ancient system of social organisation—was used to represent Dalit and Shudra communities and also women. "If the majority of our population won't be active participants, then the society is bound to be broken. If your foot is broken, you cannot stand up," says Sumesh Manoj Sharma, artistic director, Strangers House Gallery.

Utarand, another work by Kamble, an assemblage of sorts using terracotta pots, nylon ropes, ceramic, metal, and indigo, is the artist's way of rejecting caste. Here, diverse media come together to create a vertical installation that's a representation of various communities. Installations, sculptures, and paintings in mixed media by 39 artists, including Kamble, from the Mumbai-based contemporary art space are on display at the India Art Fair's Young Collectors Programme.

Titled The Panorama Beyond the Colour Line, the exhibition seeks "universalism" in art, and initiates perspectives on alternate art history, and the Black Consciousness Movement. It is guided by the ideals of Senegalese historian and anthropologist Cheikh Anta Diop, and B.R. Ambedkar.

Curated by Kamble, Shamooda Amrelia, and George Varley—all of them artists, curators, and culture activists in their own right—the exhibition becomes a way of looking at a range of representation in India.