Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the insurgent material worlds - and their ethical call for action - on display at two exhibitions held in Delhi in early 2020: the Sahmat art exhibition titled ‘Celebrate, Illuminate, Rejuvenate, Defend the Constitution of India at 70’ and ‘Suññatā Samānta: Emptiness Equality’.

Paper long abstract:

At the time of the 2020 edition of the India Art Fair in Delhi – an art event that acts as a catalyst of many others across the city -, two exhibitions stood out for the insurgent material worlds on display: the Sahmat art exhibition titled ‘Celebrate, Illuminate, Rejuvenate, Defend the Constitution of India at 70’ and ‘Suññatā Samānta: Emptiness Equality’. These exhibitions’ aims inadvertently intersected: the former aimed to uphold the legal foundations of the nation enshrined in the Indian Constitution while the latter infused anti-caste ideologies into art – especially those engendered by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the very architect of the Constitution. Rather than being ‘post-event’ displays, these exhibitions’ evocative power was augmented by their accidental coevalness with the anti-CAA-NRC protest at Shaheen Bagh (also in Delhi) and its pan-Indian proliferation. This paper examines the co-constitution of artists, art works and exhibitions’ sites in three directions: the ensemble of known and less-known artists featuring in them vis-à-vis the flourishing of spontaneous art and performances at the protest sites; the entry into the ‘mainstream’ by artists who had previously remained confined to the ‘Dalit artist category’ among others; and the presence of recursive anti-caste iconographies enlivening art-world spaces and their refashioning at the protest sites. Overall, the paper speaks of these exhibitions’ ethical call for action in favour of both immediate and long-standing concerns within the Indian nation.