Gurgaon's first open-air exhibition a big draw

GURGAON: The best art galleries should be seen as exhibits in themselves. A display space, appropriately put together, compliments the artworks it accommodates. Still, even the most superbly done art gallery can have its limiting effects - it is spatially confining. So how does an artist, whose intent may be to break all boundaries, cope with such a shortcoming? The answer is obvious - by moving out of the art gallery.
Gurgaon's first al-fresco exhibition, named 'D Art Factory' (DAF), marks the first such effort in this city to take art outdoors. Anyone visiting the venue - which is a part of the compound of an operational factory in Sector 22 - can instantly see why this concept works so well. The set-up, in all its uniqueness, provides a welcome blend of art and nature.
The purest expression of this blend is the towering neem tree that stands right in the middle of the premises. Hanging from one of its branches is a 20-foot-long canvas painted in acrylic colours by Yaatendra Mamgain. "What I like about the whole thing is that there is no restriction in terms of space. It was just on a random impulse, when we were thinking where to put up my painting, that we decided to hang it from a tree. Recently, there was rain and thunderstorm, and I told them to not remove the painting," said Mamgain, who lives in Dehradun. If the aim was to 'go beyond the conventions', as Mamgain put it, then the gesture was appropriate enough.
Paintings, sculptures, art installations and photographs from around 21 artists have been showcased at the DFA, which started earlier this month, and is slated to conclude on March 30. The billing includes contemporary artists from India, France and Belgium, and a post-modern flamboyance of style - sculptures made of plastic trays and paper shreds - is what defines most of the exhibits here.
"The idea with this exhibition was to go beyond the restrictions imposed by a gallery's walls, and to do something different," said Surbhi Mehta, an artist who is also the curator of this exhibition.
"But it isn't something that I have seen being done elsewhere. I just thought why not have an open exhibition space, where paintings, art installations and nature can coexist. Where you can even hear the birds," Mehta said.
'Eco art' is becoming a genre in its own right, and that familiar 'waste-to-art' note is regularly struck at the DAF. Instead of being kept on easels, paintings are mounted on improvised wooden frames, made from scrap. That is, when they are not left leaning against old metal trunks or seen hanging from treetops.