Week 6

This week’s articles are mainly focused on the role of curator in a museum or a gallery. What kind of an important role does a curator play. The objects that we put in a museum are not always meant to be put after a point. Here the curator’s part comes, where the curator has to exhibit in a way which bring the significance of the object so properly. And this brings me to this conclusion that how manipulative museums are. Whenever I visited museum I always relied on the authenticity that they showed. But after reading the articles I won’t be able to rely on the information they give. A curator or a museum can trick people and instigate their thoughts. And whatever we read in history books and the pictures that we saw in the books, thought the information are authentic, we overlook them because of lack of the presentation skill. So here I feel a good mutual understanding should happen between the objects and curators. There should be balance between the fact and the manipulation. The author talks about Rasa in Indian art. Even in biographical exhibition curators as well as the historians play a very significant role in joining the dots in the story, so here is the question how authentic are the lines between the dots by the curators?

5th Week

Replica is constrained in a certain group of people. Everyone cant afford to buy an original painting of a famous artist so generally people tend to buy the replicas. one has to have enough money to afford  the original one, even if i am not a layman and I  understand  the art  but i cant afford it. Therefore I feel the purpose of a fake object  is to connect to the original one. And its popularity depends on the advertisement of the original as well as the replica . i believe the fakers are all above creator in the market. but yeah one cant really get the feel of the original painting through the replica. I would rather spend some money and go see the original piece kept at the museum. 

In a gallery or a museum thing should not allowed to be touched, atleast not in India. when I went to the Habitat Center in New Delhi, in the gallery there were sculptures kept a stool sort of a thing. There was a guard who had a disposable coffee cup in his hand. He was constantly keeping his eye on us but suddenly I saw meanwhile he kept his cup just on one those stools where there was a sculpture kept. I felt so bad, the person who is in charge of the security of the gallery, does he really value the kept objects? that he was keeping his stupid disposable coffee cup just by a sculpture made by some famous artist!!!!!!

In Santiniketan also, there are sculptures made by Ramkinkar Baij,one of the pioneers of modern Indian sculpture, had been installed open air and kept like that. Noone is there to take care of them, bird's shit and over flowing water from the water tank of the hostels destroying the precious art work.

4th Week reading

I can’t exactly remember the name of the museums that I’ve visited till date. All of them were mostly so boring that I never thought that it was important to by heart their names.  Even after coming out the museums mostly I forget what I saw inside just before few minutes. But whatever I always tend to remember always should carry some historical/political/cultural significance, such as collections done by the Worlds Heritage Site or Archeological Survey of India.

But now when I look back I remember a heritage site or even a zoo as well as a botanical garden can be considered as a collection. Personally until and unless the object is in some sort of existential crisis or have some a current contextual value I won’t be going to see it in a museum.

3rd week blog post

• I value my collection but that doesn't mean it should value something. I collect whatever i come across or i see and it should hold some story (personal collection) for example I got a card from someone on some special occasion. During my school days for almost ten years we used to make hand made greeting cards for my friends and family on Bengali and English New year, and naturally i used to receive from them. So I kept all the cards and photographs with me in a box quite safely..i dont even carry that to Bangalore in case pf losing...in a way i can say my friends and family are in a box when I see the box, which carries only emotional value. 
• Defining the collector and purpose behind the collection and create an identity .