Frames of Reference 2011: Performing Resistance

The idea of “art” has worn many garbs through the centuries and has shaped and become part of multiple and varied conceptions of social reality. Art, once it discarded its burden of verisimilitude to a reality out there, has often been seen as potentially subversive because of its ability to defamiliarise the familiar, to open up new ways of seeing and being. This potential of art to resist dominant ideologies has generally been attributed to avant garde “high” art, as opposed to popular forms.

Moving from a once canonised exclusive social milieu where art forms were viewed as reserved only for a “discerning” elite class, we have seen ruptures in space and time where popular culture, indigenous, folk and traditional art forms have entered the academic debate with the sort of energy that shook the ivory tower of high culture from its foundations. Moreover newer forms of expression have emerged out of the unique encounters and the social processes that the contemporary scenario throws together. It is important then at this critical juncture to look afresh at our conception of art and how we can view its articulation within relations of power and resistance in the social matrix.

In a broad sweep of “the arts” we can include visual art of all kinds, (cinema, painting, installation etc.) literature, performative arts as well as other more innovative forms which use an aesthetic base to project their content.

One cannot view the arts in isolation from social and political events. The very production of these works is often embedded within broader discourses of the communities and the prevalent cultural dynamic.  In this seminar we seek to understand and critically interrogate works of art that question dominant ideologies and structures within the frameworks of gender, religion, caste, class and the nation.  We are looking specifically here at forms of art which offer up the potential for a subversive politics within the subcontinent.