Exhibitions offer a unique opportunity for students to experience and learn about the history and culture of a place through art. On 22 August 2023, students of classes 3 to 5 along with their teachers Ms Kanika Batheja and Ms Debaroti visited the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Saket for an exhibition and a workshop.
It is the first private, modern and contemporary art museum in India. The core collection of the museum highlights a magnificent generation of 20th-century Indian painters from the post-independent decades and equally engages the different art practices of the younger contemporaries.
The students, in particular, visited the exhibition named ‘Very Small Feelings’, co-produced by Kiran Nadar Museum of Art and the Samdani Art Foundation (SAF). It is the fourth exhibition under KNMA's multi-part, long-term programmr, 'Young Artists of Our Times' which was initiated in 2019.
The exhibition brought together forty-two projects ranging from new commissions, historical works, performances, books, personal and institutional archives, artist's creative prompts turned into installations, and many kinds of landscape. Soon began an introduction to the various forms of art and their significance.
Renowned author Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama, an adaptation of a legend from the Sundarbans that speaks to nature, came to life through its audio-visual presentation. This unique visual experience engaged the students and profoundly impacted their manner of perceiving art.
The students were motivated and enthralled to see the artworks made by child artists and the category of child-art, by artist-educator Devi Prasad. These drawings – from a three-year-old’s scribblings to a fifteen-year-old’s rendering of a summer afternoon in a village were brilliant and expressive.
They were delighted by the display of works of artists like the architect duo Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty, a sculptural installation by Delhi-based artist Murari Jha; a large-scale installation by Indonesian artist Aditya Novali and Ade Dianita, a new site-specific mural art by Finnish artist Jani Ruscica and Berlin-based artist Simon Fujiwara’s new set of works on his character of Who the Baer, among other works.
The students also got engrossed in Afrah Shafiq’s interactive fiction and archival game, titled Nobody Knows for Certain (2021-2022) in a video form. Then, they were encouraged to make their dolls and sculptures by Afra Eisma's work ‘Poke Press Squeeze Clasp’ where she uses yarn, ceramics, textiles and other soft materials to create sculptures and artwork.
Inspired by Ade Dianita and Aditya Novali, the students put their creative minds to work and drew abstract art based on nature and landscapes using various monochrome shapes and patterns. It seemed like a meditative activity as each one got engrossed in applying his or her creativity on the drawing sheet. The works came in for spontaneous appreciation and encouragement by all.
The exhibition became a space for action, emotion, exploration and reflection for the students. This visit and workshop enriched students' knowledge and provided an enjoyable and memorable experience.
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