Curated by: Dr. Y. S. Alone
Texts: Dr. Y. S. Alone, Arushi Vats, Aatika Singh, Dr. Umesh Bagade
Foreword: Mamta Singhania
Publication Design: Studio Anugraha
ISBN: 978-819692311-2
“The identity of an image is the biggest choice exercised by the artist to conceal or reveal specifically its social identity, which becomes a caste identity. The grand claims of a return to the narrative in the decade of seventy and eighty have distinct class markers based on Gandhian ethos under the nomenclature of left and Marxism, conveniently concealing the caste markers and adherence to the Gandhian socialism of spirituality and the class representation of the organised labour where the criteria of labour that are unionised become important indicator for entire productivity of the nation and its GDP. Such exclusive tactics completely bypass the large mass of labour, their professions based on the caste markers are deemed as 'unorganised labour' and do not become part of pictoriality. The spectre of figure representation gets into the politicality. Ranciere observes that 'political is aesthetics and aesthetics is political' (2009). There is a new sense of consciousness that has come from Ambedkarian thinking resulting in reflective realisation as a means of intervention in producing artworks interrogating caste through pictorial signifiers. Vikrant's art practices have emerged through distinct Ambedkarite consciousness that is away from speculative metaphysical transcendental aesthetics and is structured in the figurative mode of representation where his mode doing figure is aimed at killing protected ignorance' and denoting the social identity without any inhibitions through expressing narrative of archival memory and the lived experiences. It is conceptualised as part of resistance. Labour, caste, gender, and oppression of the masses are important concerns addressed through his narratives with specific symbols drawn from everyday life.”
(excerpt from the curatorial essay, Subversion of Narrative: Constructing Social Through Pictorial Space in the Art Practice of Vikrant Bhise, by Dr. Y. S. Alone)