Street Art Inspirits
Ram Rahman, Madhubala, Daryagani, 2004, digital photo.
With Roohi Ahmed, Shez Dawood, Shilpa Gupta, N.S. Harsha, Tushar Joag, Jitish Kallat, Naiza Khan, Riyas Komu, Kausik Mukhapadhya, Sumaira Tazeen
Friday, 5 August - Sunday, 7 August, 2005
Co-presented with Masala! Mehndi! Masti! Festival
The Marilyn Brewer Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West Toronto
Curated by Mehzun Rub
Opening Reception: Friday, 5 August, 7-11pm. FREE
Streets are notorious for homing chaotic juxtapositions of information and images. Competition for space and dominance demands that images appear on a wide range of spaces and surfaces. South Asian mega cities for instance are festive sites where graphics and colour appear on a multitude of urban elements. The cumulative effect of people's interaction and experience with these images and information inspire art.
Street Art Inspirits presents local and international artists whose works focus on street art and/or street iconography in all its urban assortment and fervor. Corporate logos, global brands, film hoardings, posters, billboards, vehicles, street signs, graffiti, and the common street scene serve as expressive stimulation for these artists.
The artists are: Anjali Bhargava (New York), Vandana Jain (New York), Ram Rahman (Delhi/New York), MSC Satya Sai (Delhi), Ashek Sakhawat (Toronto), and Meera Sethi (Toronto). As well, posters by ten selected artists from Aar Paar 2, a public exchange project between India and Pakistan will be presented. The artists are: Roohi Ahmed (Karachi) Shez Dawood (London), Shilpa Gupta (Mumbai), N.S. Harsha (Mumbai), Tushar Joag (Mumbai), Jitish Kallat (Mumbai), Naiza Khan (Karachi), Riyas Komu (Mumbai), Kausik Mukhapadhya (Mumbai),and Sumaira Tazeen (Karachi).
Ram Rahman and Ashek Sakhawat photograph vendors, hoardings and posters blurring the line between the real (the vendors) and the unreal (the posters) so that viewers, at first glance, become confused as to which is which.
Anjali Bhargava shows a series of images depicting women going about their daily lives on streets in India.
Vandana Jain creates mystical symbols by systematically compiling corporate logos.
Meera Sethi creates signage that mimics the appearance of traffic signs but serves the purpose of being environmental warnings with the ironic twist of them being in non-alert colors.
MSC Satya Sai recreates the 'feel' of a street by producing an acrylic on canvas version of a zebra crossing that he laid out and used for crossing the streets of Delhi.
The ten artists from Aar Paar 2 create posters and flyers that address and provide a source of amicable conversation between two cities, Lahore and Mumbai at a time when communication is scarce.
Mehzun Rub is a Toronto-based visual artist with an avid admiration for the energies that define urban culture. She has exhibited in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto and is currently a graduate student of architecture at the University of Toronto.
