Art acts an anchor during dark times’

New Delhi, April 16  During any kind of social disruption, art acts as an anchor for people, and is a creative outlet during dark times, said an online panel of art world speakers.

“In any disruption, art in many ways, for many people acts as an anchor. It”s a journey you take to tackle the disturbance, all the things around you. It”s a reflection of society, of what is going around you. Artiste reflect and put forward the feelings, the emotions and, as a community, represent what is happening around you. Going through disturbances without art will be very depressing,” Dinesh Vazirani, Co-founder, Saffronart said during the Stimulus 2020 webinar series.

Bose Krishnamanchari, renowned artist and cofounder of the Kochi-Muziris Binennale, believes that art contributed to the economy not just globally, but locally, too.

“Art making has become a collective rather than just an individual practice. A lot of our artist friends were reached out to and they took the online space to show what they have done in this time and displayed alot of incredible stuff. Everyone has gotten some time to introspect within themselves. We know that after this lockdown, the economy will have a tough time to face, but art can bring that wealth and pleasure back,” he said during the online webinar. Krishnamachari is spending the lockdown looking at his collection of travel and family photographs.

Adding to his thoughts, art patron Shalini Passi said that art is an experimental practice and is everywhere around us.

“When we talk about disruptions, crafts and techniques keep evolving over time. Craft has been able to adapt according to the changing demand. Earlier, we were very influenced by traditional patterns, went on to transitional and contemporary all telling the day to day life. Not so much of a disruption in crafts itself because we are able to adapt and move on,” Angelique Dhama, Chief Marketing Officer of Obeetee said.