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Khaleej Times
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Khaleej Times
This artist has big feelings about Indian weddings
When Rajiv Menon opened his contemporary art gallery in Hollywood, California, in February, it was a tumultuous period in the art world in Los Angeles, with many galleries shutting their doors amid the wildfires that had devastated the city. Menon knew the timing was risky, but he was determined to create a space to showcase perspectives from South Asia and the diaspora. 'It was driving me crazy how that wasn't happening on the West Coast,' said Menon, 36. 'We're seeing one-off artists here or there, but never is the work contextualized.' The opening for Rajiv Menon Contemporary brought out about 400 people, from art fans to community members in the area, including writer Jay Shetty. Since then, the gallery has become a cultural hub for conversation in Los Angeles, as one of the few spaces in the United States to specialize in contemporary South Asian art. The gallery's new exhibition, 'Why Did I Say Yes?,' which opened to the public Saturday, features the work of Viraj Khanna, a visual artist from Kolkata, India, who primarily works with textiles. The exhibition, curated by Menon, examines the global phenomenon that the Indian wedding has become. 'Indian weddings have a very plumbable role of soft power of introducing people to different elements of Indian fashion, of Indian music,' Menon said. 'All of it happens through that vehicle, and I think that really has become the major point of cultural exchange between India and the West.' In his work, Khanna, 29, frequently explores topics around conspicuous consumption, excess and social media anxieties. The Indian wedding felt like the perfect grounds to explore those forces, he said. Khanna, a son of renowned Indian designer Anamika Khanna's, pulls from his upbringing in India's fashion elite to satirize the lavish, big fat Indian weddings he grew up attending. Each artwork is paired with a caption of dialogue — snippets of chatter, gossip or internal thoughts that help re-create scenes from Khanna's experiences navigating the wedding circuit. The artwork features vibrant and maximalist embroideries, tapestries and textile works. Khanna collaborated with artisans in West Bengal to incorporate the centuries-old embroidery techniques: ari and zardozi. Each frame is loaded with textures, tempting the viewer to touch it. At the gallery's opening, a large, diverse crowd made its way through the various rooms that took them through moments from the pre-wedding (mehendi and sangeet), the wedding ceremony and the after-party. Khanna and Menon spoke about the inspiration behind the summer exhibition, on display through Aug. 30, their thoughts on big fat Indian weddings and what makes good satire. This interview was edited and condensed for clarity. Q: How have Indian weddings become a kind of luxury theater? KHANNA: The way we are physiologically built, we always want attention and power because it's always sort of been closely linked to survival. It's human nature. Weddings are a great way to get it. It is a spectacle that showcases so much: your culture, your tradition, your taste, hundreds of friends and families getting together. There is a display of wealth and power in different ways. Q: How are you poking fun at big Indian weddings? MENON: The thing about Indian weddings is that there are times when they are intentionally ridiculous. Where else are you going to have to make a grand entrance, learn a dance and put on a performance for people? Despite that, there's also so much art and love at the wedding. The way that this work is titled and presented does have a cheeky sense of humor. One work is titled 'I'm done socializing.' There are these images of people feeling social anxiety. There are moments of people feeling insecure about their singleness at the wedding. I think being able to show the clear, over-the-top nature of the wedding, but then showing that underneath that spectacle, there is this really valuable human experience — that's what makes it feel elevated to me. I think about Kevin Kwan's 'Crazy Rich Asians,' for example, which takes a lot of really big swings at a certain type of wealthy culture, but that is rooted in a love of the characters and a love for humanity that's being presented. I really get that feeling in Viraj. Q: There's a lot of respect in the exhibition for cultural traditions. MENON: There is real reverence for the Indian wedding and for the craftsmanship of the clothes that people are wearing, the care behind the scenes. And then there's acknowledgment that it brings out funny, crazy behavior in people as well. Q: And the spectacle of it all — a lot of people would reference the Ambani wedding as the epitome of that. It drew a lot of criticism. KHANNA: Yeah, but it clearly shows that everyone is so obsessed or so interested in Indian culture and tradition. All my friends in America wanted to attend an Indian wedding after that. Q: How many artisans did you collaborate with for this exhibition? KHANNA: I worked with around 30 artisans for this show, and they're all in West Bengal. My practice does take aspects from the fashion world and eventually gets them into the art space. Q: Were you in West Bengal for this project? KHANNA: I worked with them directly in West Bengal for around six months. One piece can take 2,000 to 3,000 hours. Hand embroidery is a dying craft in India. And it's becoming more and more difficult to find great artisans. This artwork is a way of preserving the craft for me. MENON: Embroidery belongs in a contemporary art conversation because this is a living heritage. Just last week, Louis Vuitton had an India-inspired menswear show. There is this presence of embroidery within the West, and it feels important to make sure that it is contextualized and celebrated in a way that really allows us to keep growing and not just be treated as an object for consumption. Q: Why did you decide to make abstract heads in the artwork? KHANNA: My work has a lot to do with social media. On social media, we create a reality for people to see. We are represented by images in this world. And social media shows a curated version of our lives. So I think that abstraction made sense to bring attention to that. In wedding culture, so much has changed because of Instagram. It's become about one perfect picture and that one moment. Q: What statement are you trying to make with this exhibition? MENON: It's showing that the wedding contains an entire universe. It has its own logic, its own aesthetics, its own cast of characters, and I want to demonstrate that the Indian wedding is worthy of being put in an art gallery because of the level of artistry and grandeur that goes into it. This is a show that really demonstrates that even when we're talking about our pop culture, our weddings, our fun, we belong in the dialogue with other major artists.
Express Tribune
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
On being an art historian and a theorist
Listen to article Dear Dr Mussarrat Hassan, To a masoomana question: Why am I more interested in art history and theory than in making art? My straightforward answer was that right after my graduation from NCA, I was given a class to teach History of Culture and Visual Arts and not painting. Can't say if it was Mrs Hashmi's foresight or mere fate. The fact is that I was among the few who could connect with Prof Iqbal Hassan, our Western Art History instructor, his pace and pedagogy. While others would avoid attending his lectures, finding them taxing or somewhat unimportant for studio practice, we, a group of enthusiasts, would ask for extra time and discussions. However, it was not until I met you during my PhD coursework that I truly realised the importance of theoretical aspects of artmaking without which contemporary art would be a meaningless activity. You taught the History of South Asian Art, introducing us to local art forms. Learning about indigenous art gave a clearer insight into Dr Durre's question: Who Am I? Since then, you have been the greatest source of inspiration and a true mentor who encouraged me to be consistent in writing. I have been told that I am good at storytelling which is, frankly, the ultimate constant in my equation. Quoting from my grade six scrapbook: "I chase stories like fireflies on summer nights, capturing their essence in jars of imagination, where they dance and shimmer, lighting the path ahead," Only if I remember being so romantic. But it is romantic to devote oneself to a cause and be hopeful that it shall bear fruit. If so, you are the most romantic person I ever came across. And I am not just referring to your love story with Sir Ijaz-ul Hassan, to whom you have been a muse, a partner and a support system. Mashallah. Your story as an art educationist and historian is worth sharing. Towards the end of the 20th century, academics worldwide were eager to decolonise the canon of art history. The discipline grew presence in educational institutions within Pakistan, too. Universities launched degree programmes with a focus on producing and preparing scholars to add to the global voices. There was a need to sensitise the students to local art. It required more focus on genuine pedagogies, relevant to this region. Such an approach demanded surveys and anthologies of art history compiled by unbiased writers who could highlight the South Asian aesthetic sensibilities. Though the scarcity of such writers is felt even today, you stand out amongst the few who opted to combat the situation and concentrated on research and writing as early as the 1990s. Producing five books with limited resources, a gap in research literacy and a lack of recognition for the expertise is a great feat indeed. In the pre-digital era, these books on art are, as you say, "the 2nd best alternative to living works of art. It is another way of exhibiting and displaying art, especially in the absence of permanent art galleries in various districts and cities of Pakistan." Your books are a treat for the layman, a treasure for the art students and a model for the new generation of art historians that you have trained over the period. Qadeem Insaan Aur Fan-e Musawwari, published in 1996, is amongst the very few art history surveys written in Urdu. Providing Urdu explanations for frequently used English terminology makes it somewhat bilingual. It typically traces the art through the ages and is surely an alternative to the most popular survey book in English with the same title. The second book, Painting in Punjab Plains, is based on your doctoral research. It documents and analyses the works of 200 artists from Punjab, active between 1849 and 1947. The history of South Asian art, as a modern genre, mainly relied upon the court chronicles of the emperors and British State gazetteers. The authenticity of both sources is tainted with political motives and personal bias. Contrary to such narratives, your commentary is based on facts and common sense. With due respect and all the regards, I shall write again to discuss other books. Bano May 2025
