Let's talk art at the Appa Art Assembly

With art exhibits, documentaries, artist interviews, dialogue and workshops, the Appa Art Assembly hopes to change the way art is perceived

Is an artwork what is visible on the canvas? What about its journey — from conceptualisation to creation? Should it be limited to the physical boundaries of a gallery, or can it be explored further and transformed using other mediums into something more beautiful? These are some of the questions that the Appa Art Assembly, a collaborative effort between Appa Art Fest and The Mumbai Assembly will explore and display at the upcoming event.

Purushotham Adve

The three-day show that takes place at the KCA Hall in Bandra from August 13 will have artists from varied backgrounds showcasing their works across mediums, and conducting workshops with the visitors.

KK Segar

"There are three parts of the show — co-creation, presentation, and interaction," says Karthikeyan Ramachandran, founder, Appa Art Fest.

Randolph Correia’s sketches and artworks are part for the show, Triple XXX

The co-creation happened between April-May with the Appa Art Festival Residency, a national level artist camp where more than 50 artists worked together over seven days. These works are going to be displayed as part of the show. But creation is not just limited to the canvas. As artists from different backgrounds such as musician Randolph Correia’s sketches (Triple XXX), and artist Kunal Naik’s show on assemblage art, Curiosa — The Immortals Within, traverse the space between classical and experimental work. The co-creations also extend to dance with a Mohiniattam Recital by Shivani Gupta on the final day of the exhibition. There’s also a special show dedicated to KN Ramachandran (Karthikeyan’s father) that will showcase few selected works from the artist. "My father started his career as a cinema hoarding painter. He did several series of paintings. We are displaying some of them here," he adds.

A cutout of artist KN Ramachandran created during the Appa Art Residency Project will also be on display

As for presentation, Karthikeyan informs that each work displayed at the show will be accompanied with a documentary featuring the artist’s interview and a video capturing the entire process of its creation, from the start to the end.

Preeti Gaonkar, The Mumbai Assembly

"Art need not be just physical. We want the audience to see how an artwork was created, the technique that the artist used, and how it evolved from nothing to something beautiful," he reasons.

Karthikeyan Ramachandran, Appa Art Fest

The show will interact with visitors via workshops, and talks featuring artists from various backgrounds. There’s a workshop on Insta (Instagram) Art by Echofloat, Tarqeeb and Big Fat Minimalist where they will showcase how to create professional graphic works on smartphones. Preeti Gaonkar of the Mumbai Art Assembly calls it an experiential engagement. "The idea is to create partnerships with artists that go beyond the visual forms of art. And that includes collaborating with local schools and community organisations that work with the underprivileged children," she adds.

Part of this idea has been extended to the panel discussion, Blurring Boundaries, where Jatin Kampani (Merchants of Cool), Kunal Anand (Kulture Shop) and independent artist Lekha Washington will talk about breaking boundaries in design and the negative and positive sides to it. 

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