Trupti Patel

Feb 25

COLLECTIVE by Trupti Patel

To express is a basic human need, fulfilling a desire to communicate. In the arts, the medium of clay has been a basic material used universally in all cultures all over the world. It is so various and adaptable that each culture and each succeeding generation finds in it a new means of expression. In the course of contemporary art practice, the potent symbolism of using clay has been of my interest, particularly in addressing issues that are relevant today.

In this work I want to present the premise of making art with public participation from all walks of life, coming together to make a collective expression, affirming to their belief in existence of unity in diversity. A ball of clay is to be offered to each willing participant who in enclosing into a fist ends up creating an impression of the enclosed palm as their own identity. Everyone is able to make the shapes as they are guided by their own action and their palms act as individual moulds, requiring no skill of `art making` techniques. Authentically, the clay ball picks out their individual fine lines in the making. A signature is taken separately on paper along with their occupation and place of origin details to record and acknowledge in making of the work. These fist pebbles are to be collected in the course of the year (initiated August 2010), fired in kilns to stoneware temperatures and eventually displayed/expressed as a riverbed.( November 2011, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon)

I do look forward to participation from everyone and seek support in crossing over from my artist’s space into incorporating the everyman’s. Will such participation by the non artist add to its appreciation or wider understanding of such non representational work that some art has developed into in addressing today’s time? Will the use of a ‘traditional’ material like clay transcend barriers and association to function and craft and be applauded its legitimate contemporaneity of expression? Will it dialogue on the issues of skill required or hired in making art today? Most importantly, what is the purpose of art making today if it is not understood by the common man even though it may be aptly speaking of Him?

Will it make a difference to reach out in the making of this work? Beggaring focus on the increasing intolerance today in our society, fragmented by discrimination, race, regionalism, gender, caste, class, color, creed, greed…

Is Unity in society `water under the bridge`?

Thank You —- a tenuous stream of collective pebbles

Trupti Patel, November 2011, Vadodara

As a student artist, Trupti Patel was amazed that despite a living tradition of Indian terracotta, fired clay was not accepted by contemporary art establishments. However, it didn’t diminish Trupti’s feeling for clay with regenerative powers and earthy nature. For her, concept and reality of ceramic offer practical participation and unique material transformation. Her dedication and persistence present a meditative perusal of clay, be it modelling for plaster mould, working with terracotta or thrown shapes or building figures, in moulded and modelled earthenware or stoneware to realize conceptual, practical and socio psychological relationship of the self and culture of people adoring rituals of the forms and functions in society.

The present work, Collective, presents a symbolic will of widening participation from a variety of people as a metaphor of cultural renewal. This work differs from her installation 101 Sips Walking, seen as a spiritual journey of emblematic oblation to mother nature with spiral of 101 ladles made in 2000-04.

Trupti’s images exert a mystic vision with symbolic function of ritual significance as she moulds, marks, pushes and paints the human figure like a meter. Her exploration of clay, lends substance to her images through an array of works as small or life size pieces be it vessels or paper which offer allusions of space, people and society. Trupti’s care and concern reveal rhymes and reality of all consuming fire toughening her curiosity and desire for collective participation of people in creative endeavours.

Trupti Patel was born in Nairobi and brought up in Baroda and Mt. Abu, before obtaining her Masters in Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda (1974-1982). In 1983-85, the British Council and Charles Wallace Scholarship allowed her to pursue an M A in Ceramics at the Royal College of Art in London before she began her work as a freelance artist until her return to Vadodara in 1997.

Biography

1957 – Trupti Patel was born in Nairobi

1974-82 – MA, Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University of Baroda

1983-85 – MA, Ceramic Sculpture, Royal College of Art, London (British Council and Charles Wallace Scholarships)

1987 – Taught at the Faculty of Fine Arts and left to continue as a freelance artist in London

1995 – Invited for the International Potters Festival, Aberystwyth Art Center, Wales

1997 – Lives and works in Vadodara

2002 – International Workshop, The Ceramic centre, Light Publications Ltd, Vadodara

2003 – Creation on Drapes Workshop, Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad

2004 – Visiting Faculty in Sculpture, National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad

2005 – Starts project work in landscape as cultural Identity in community spaces, Brijwasan, Delhi

2006 – Environmental Art Work along the Tropic of Cancer in India, to work over two years. Executed first phase in Bhuj, Gujarat

2007-08 – Curated Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture for Lemon Grasshopper Gallery in two parts and Indian Ceramics Today at the Herwitz Gallery in Ahmedabad.

2009 – Curated On the Table, works of contemporary functional ceramists for Transforme Design in Mumbai.

2010 – ‘from the centre of creativity in the clay of India’, Catalogue text, From The Center, published by Ceramic Centre, Vadodara and exhibition at the Gallery Art and Soul, Mumbai

Solo Exhibitions:

1983 – Hatheesing Art Gallery, Amdavad

1986 – Student Showcase, Museum of Mankind, London

1995 – The Hannah Peschar Gallery, Ockley

1996 – Chelmsford and Essex Museum, Chelmsford

2001 – Nazar Gallery, Vadodara

2004 – Queen’s Gallery, The British Council, New Delhi

2004-2005 – Fluent Consciousness at Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

2008 – White Heat at India Habitat Centre New Delhi and Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon

Selected Group Exhibition:

1980-81 Gujarat Lalit Kala Akademi, Ahmedabad

1980-83 National Exhibition, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

1984 – First World Triennale of small Ceramics, Yugoslavia

1985 – Degree Show, Royal College of art, London

1986 – Works in Clay, Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London Garden of Art, Works Selected by Whitechapel Art Gallery, London for the National Garden Festival, Stoke-on-Trent

1987 – Panorama of Indian Contemporary Sculpture, Mumbai

1988 – Gujarati Indian Artists, Leicestershire Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester

1989 – Clay Bodies, Contemporary Applied Arts, London

1991 – Colours of the Earth, The British Council touring exhibition in India

1992 – London Art Fair, Business design Centre, London

1993 – Art for Sale, Whitleys, London The Raw and the Cooked, The Barbican Art Gallery, London (a survey of New Work in Clay in Britain, organised by The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford)

1994 – The Raw and the Cooked, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford and Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan and Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

1995 – The Raw and the Cooked, The Shigaraki Ceramic Sculpture Park, Japan Guest Artists, International Potters Festival, Aberystwyth Art Center, Wales

1995-96 – Indian Winter, Kapil Jariwala Gallery, London

1996 – SOFA Miami Exposition, Second International Annual Exposition, Miami

The British are Coming, Indigo Gallery, Boca Raton, Miami

1997 – Sculpture at Goodwood, Goodwood Eastern Edge, Laing Art Gallery, New Castle-upon-Tyne

1998 – Drawing ’98, Nazar Gallery, Vadodara Golden Jubillee Portfolio of Prints, Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda

2000 – Beyond the Surface, The Fine Art Company, Mumbai and Gallery Espace, New Delhi

2001 – Artcore, Vadodara

2002 – The Banyan City, Nazar Gallery, Vadodara Voices Against Violence, Faculty of Fine Arts, Vadodara Solitude, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi and tour to Mumbai Water Exhibition, Delhi Blue Pottery, India Habitat Centre Gallery, New Delhi Creative Space, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai and Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

2003 – Transporatale S2, Crossing-Knotting, Berlin Railway Station, Berlin ‘Highlights’, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai, Affordable Art Show & Creation on Drapes Workshop, Kanoria Centre for Arts, Ahmedabad

Solitude, Apparao Gallery, Artist Centre, Mumbai

2004 – Looking Back, Looking Forward, Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara Subtlety-Minimally, Curated by Marta Jakimovitz, Sakshi Gallery, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

2005 – 11th Triennale, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

The Chair Project, Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara

2006 – Making of Divinity, Curated by Ina Puri, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

Finger Prints, Digital prints and films, Lanxess ABS Gallery, Baroda

Nirmiti, a constructed object, Akar Prakar, Kolkata

The Female Hero, Lemon grass Hopper Art Gallery, Ahmedabad

Take Two – The Chennai Chapter, Group show of painting and sculpture, Gallery Sumukha Chennai, Chennai

Bronze, Gallery Espace, Rabindra Bhavan Galleries, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi

2007 – Influences, Lanxess ABS Gallery, Vadodara

Art on the Wings, Sarjan Art Gallery, Vadodara

12th Harmony Show, Mumbai

Embodied, Art & Soul Gallery, Mumbai

Art for concern, Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai

Contemporary Ceramic Sculpture, Lemon Grasshopper Gallery, Ahmedabad

Earth Synergy, an Indo Korean Contemporary Ceramic Exhibition, Inko Centre,

Forum Art Gallery, Chennai

2008 – Earth Synergy, an Indo Korean Contemporary Ceramic Exhibition, Gallerie Navya, New Delhi

Indian Ceramics Today, Herwitz Gallery (Lemon Grasshopper Gallery), Ahmedabad

Indian Art Summit, New Delhi, Presented by Gallerie Alternatives

Art for Concern, Annual Charity Auction, Mumbai

2009 – Indian Art Summit, New Delhi

Artist of the Month, Bajaj Capital Art House, New Delhi, March

Artist of the Month, www. Saffron Art, October

On the Table, Transforme, Mumbai.

Three by One, a selection from three public crafts collections by Alison Britton, Exhibition at the Crafts Study Centre, Farnham and book published by the Crafts Council/ Crafts Study Centre, London

2010 – Auction, Art for Concern, Hacienda Art Gallery, Mumbai From The Center, Ceramic Centre, Vadodara and the Gallery Art and Soul, Mumbai

2011 – India Art Summit, New Delhi, Presented by Gallerie Alternatives, 32 mind creative, Andpersand Magazine, Le Meridian Hotel, New Delhi Fly Vadodara Fly, Celebrating Vadodara on Canvas, the Ref Earth Galleries, Vadodara.

Publication/ Exhibition Catalogue:

1995 – Royal Overseas League Art Trophy, London

1986 – Whitchapel Art Gallery at the National Garden Festival, Stoke-on-Trent

1995 – Grays Thurrock Council, Essex

2005 – The Fluent Consciousness, Work by Trupti Patel, Text by Kristine Michael, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (28 pages)

2008 White Heat, Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon (30 pages)

2010 – ‘from the centre of creativity in the clay of India’, Catalogue text, From The Center, published by Ceramic Centre, Vadodara and exhibition at the Gallery Art and Soul, Mumbai

Awards:

1981 – Gujarat Lalit Kala Akademi, Ahmedabad

1983 – British Council Scholarship, New Delhi

1984 – The Charles Wallace India Trust Award, London

Commissions:

1995 – Royal Overseas League Art Trophy, London

1986 – Whitchapel Art Gallery at the National Garden Festival, Stoke-on-Trent

1995 – Grays Thurrock Council, Essex

Collections:

The British Council, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London Royal College of Art, London Kanoria Art Centre, Ahmedabad The Shigaraki Ceramic Sculpture Park, Japan The University of Wales, Aberystwyth Grays Thurrock Council, Essex Cartwright Hall, Bradford Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Chelmsford and essex Museum, Chelmsford Laing Art Gallery, New Castle-upon-Tyne The Ceramic Centre, Light Publications Ltd, Vadodara Gallerie Alternatives, Gurgaon