Contemporary Asian Artist Ⅱ［India］
SUDARSHAN SHETTY

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum has been holding the series of exhibition, ‘Contemporary Asian Artist.’ As the second exhibition of the series, we would like to open an exhibition, ‘Sudarshan Shetty.’

Sudarshan Shetty (1961-) who works on sculpture and installations in India.  Shetty bases himself in Mumbai, a metropolis on the west coast of India and has been regularly creating artworks since 90s.  In recent years, he participated in the ‘Kwangju Biennale’ in Korea (2000) and ‘Century City’ (2001) held in the Tate Modern in the United Kingdom.  He is attracting a great deal of public attention as one of the leading artist in the Indian art scene.

Indian art, in the 20th century, forcibly responded to social requirement such as nationalism.  Shetty’s works envisions a lyrical world full of playfulness and freedom liberated from such political issues.  His art-world reflects contemporary urban life.  By stimulating the memories of people’s childhood and their playful-mind filled with curiosity, he cleverly escapes from the globalism that homoginises the world and innocently plots to overthrow the value system led by politics and the economy.

Shetty’s ‘amusement’ is to escape from the social framework, and at the same time, it is a trial of collecting scattered fragments of daily life.  Through the process of editing and applying the fragments, Shetty superimposes various facets of contemporary society.  In the ‘Amusement Parlour’ created in this way, anticipation for future possibilities as well as anxieties for irrationality and unknown precincts, or eeriness behind contemporary society and amusements are projected.

In the exhibition, the installation consists of chairs, a desk, boats, stringed instrument, airplane, all with mechanical device and movable.  In the installation composed of those objects ‘For Here or To Go’, Shetty creates a new kaleidoscopic story.

Artist Talk
Talk on Shetty’s works by the artist himself
1 September  14:00-15:30
At Ajibi Hall, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum 8F
Admission Free

Sudarshan Shetty
Born in 1961. Studied at the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai from 1980 to 85. Based in Mumbai. Participated in the ‘Private Mythology: Contemporary Art from India’ (Tokyo) in 1998, ‘Kwangju Biennale’ (Korea) in 2000, ‘Century City’ (UK) in 2001. A solo exhibition, ‘Paper Moon’ was held in India in 1995. A group exhibition, ‘Private Languages’ in India in 1997.