Artistic Treat for All Senses, Art in ASIA, March-April 2009

Material for a film (performance), 2006, 1000 blank books shot by the artist with a .22 caliber gun (material from 2006 performance), shelving, and 67 photographs, Dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York Installation view, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2009 Photo by David Heald

Material for a film (performance), 2005-06 (detail), Installation and performance, 1000 blank books shot by the artist with a 22 caliber gun, mixed media, and photographs, dimensions variable, Documentary photograph, Zones of Contact: 2006 Biennale of Sydney. Photo courtesy the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York

Inbox, 2004?05 (detail), Oil on wood, 45 parts, 11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.5 cm) each, Installation view, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, 2007. Photo courtesy the artist and Alexander and Bonin, New York

Artistic Treat for All Senses

Raj S. Rangarajan

From multi-media installations and painstaking presentations to colorful prints and video, artist Emily Jacir has done it all. Her redoubtable passion for her subject (Palestine poet Wael Zuaiter) which becomes an obsession in her two installations - Material for a film (performance) (2006) and In Material for a film (2004~) is the theme of a new exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum that opened on February 6 and runs through April 15, 2009 in New York. Emily Jacir, who lives and works in New York and Ramallah, Palestine was awarded on November 13, 2008 the seventh biennial Hugo Boss Prize. Established in 1996 by Hugo Boss and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation to recognize significant achievement in contemporary art, the prize carries an award of $100,000. At the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, Jacir received the Golden Lion Award for an artist under 40. As an archivist, Jacir creates arresting works of art that are at intensely personal and deeply political.

Born in Bethlehem, Palestine, 38-year-old Jacir’s work embraces closely the Palestinian situation while highlighting the mundane and the intellectual in that mid-eastern trouble spot. Jacir physically practised to shoot a .22 caliber pistol to personally feel the pain that Zuaiter felt when he was gunned down in 1972 in Rome by Israeli secret service agents. On display is a list of Mossad agents shown in works derived from a chapter by filmmakers-Elio Petri and Ugo Pirro - of the 1979 collection of essays, poems, and memoirs For a Palestinian: A Memory of Wael Zuaiter, edited by Janet Venn-Brown.
The creation also includes old telegrams (alas, we don’t see them any more in real life!), taped conversations by Italian police during October-December 1972, photos at a Rome bar, original manuscripts ? grayed but well-preserved - and even a unique coin in a white envelope - perhaps a lucky charm that Zuaiter constantly carried.

Two Memorable Creations

This exhibition brings together, for the first time, two installations that address the assassination of Wael Zuaiter by Israeli secret service agents following the kidnapping of the Israeli delegation of athletes and trainers to the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics by the Palestinian militant group Black September (to which Zuaiter was reportedly never conclusively linked). He was assassinated by Mossad agents on October 16, 1972, who shot him 12-18 times (accounts vary) in the lobby of his apartment building in Rome. The Israeli government, under Golda Meir, had issued his death warrant on the claim that he was involved in “PLO terrorism.”

Material for a film (performance) (2006) presents a memorial to one of Zuaiter’s thwarted aspirations: the translation of the centuries-old collection of Arabic stories One Thousand and One Nights into Italian. A bullet pierced a copy of volume two of the ancient classic that Zuaiter was carrying when he was gunned down. For this installation, first shown at the 2006 Biennale of Sydney, Jacir photographed each page that showed vestiges of the bullet from a .22 caliber pistol ? the same model used in the murder ? and fired bullets into 1000 blank books, creating a haunting mausoleum in graphic detail that, in the artist’s words, “is a memorial to untold stories. To that which has not been translated. To stories that will never be written.”

In Material for a film (2004~), which was first exhibited at the 2007 Venice Biennale, Jacir culled items from Zuaiter’s personal effects, including photographs, books, correspondence, and music, to create an intimate portrait. Jacir sought out his friends and family (documented in pictures), as well as the places Zuaiter lived and frequented, in order to present a chronicle of his life, work, and passions. As a child, Jacir has lived in Saudi Arabia and attended high school in Italy. After her undergraduate degree from the University of Dallas she did her MFA from Memphis College of Art in the U.S. She is currently a full-time instructor at the International Academy of Art in Ramallah and has been active in building Ramallah’s art scene since 1999 and has been involved in various organizations including the Qattan Foundation, al-Ma’mal Foundation and the Sakakini Cultural Center.

While the Hugo Boss Prize sets no restrictions in terms of age, gender, race, nationality or media, it is interesting that in the past 12 years, since its inception in 1996, it has been won by a different nationality every time: American artist Matthew Barney (1996), Scottish artist Douglas Gordon (1998), Slovenian artist Marjetica Potr? (2000), French artist Pierre Huyghe (2002), Argentina-born Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (2004) and British artist Tacita Dean (2006). In 2008 it was the turn of Emily Jacir - an artist born in Bethlehem, Palestine.

Art market slow but should rebound

With a downturn in world economies this writer asked a Bangalore-based auctioneer, M. Maher Dadha, chairman and managing director of Bid & Hammer about prospects for the art industry.

Excerpts

RR: Following a slowing down of the economy do you also see a slowdown in the buying of contemporary art or higher-priced bronzes by collectors, dealers, galleries?

MMD: The slowdown in the economy is bound to affect the sale of high-priced art, but only if it does not intrinsically affect values. The rich or the super-rich who have not been personally affected by the downturn will continue to buy works of good quality.

RR: Over the past 5 to 6 years, creations by many Indian artists have sold exemplarily well -- some to the tune of US$ 1 million. Do you think soaring prices for contemporary Indian art will continue in spite of the depressed economic situation?

MMD: Prices of works by some contemporary Indian artists have been reaching astonishingly high levels and that too at a very quick pace which has been due to speculation fuelled by certain syndicated forces working in the market. Thus the ongoing correction is good for the market and in the short-to-medium term, the prices of works by some artists will go up but at realistic, sustainable levels. Indian artists are still under-valued, their potential is pretty high as they are increasingly being recognized on a global stage. Also, many Indians in India are buying expensive creations from artists such as Husain, Tyeb Mehta, Godbole and Subodh Gupta at auctions abroad in view of their universal appeal.

RR: Expensive bronzes seem to be bought more often by corporate outfits or galleries owned by non-Indian outfits. Your comments?

MMD: Corporate entities generally tend to buy bronzes or engage sculptors to thematically decorate their corporate offices, gardens, campuses, meeting rooms, etc. and because they have access to large funds it is easier for them to take a decision to buy a piece of bronze or sculpture. However, the domestic Indian market has also been picking up and in the next 2-3 years I foresee the buying of bronzes and sculptures increasing manifold.

(A New York-based trend writer, Raj Rangarajan reports on the art market and contributes to publications in the United States, Canada, Seoul and India.)

RAJ S RANGARAJAN
TALKTORETAILPLUS@YAHOO.COM

Mixed World Reviews for Slumdog Millionaire

By Raj S. Rangarajan

It all started in Toronto.

It was the first city to recognize the film – Slumdog Millionaire – with the People’s Choice Award way back in September 2008, and soon came recognition at Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The film was released in November 2008 in a few theaters in North America rather quietly and not too much was expected of Slumdog.

Dev Patel and Freida Pinto

While the Academy Award event in Los Angeles on February 22 was the culmination of the effort preceded by Best Adapted Screenplay award from the Writers Guild of America and BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Awards) on February 8 in London, it was one meteoric rise for the directors, creative folk, crew and cast of the movie. December drew more awards starting with a nod by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and another from the New York Film Critics' Circle, as well as six nominations for the Critics Choice Awards.

The International Press Academy awarded three Satellite Awards including Best Picture – Drama, Best Director and Best Score to the film. It also won four EDA (Excellent Dynamic Activism) Awards from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists including for Best Film and Best Direction. The Screen Actors Guild chimed in with Dev Patel (Jamal) in a lead role and so did London Critics’ Circle with nods for six nominations. Detroit Film Critics Society and Florida Film Critics Circle recognized the movie and soon Chicago Film Critics Association did the same. The mantel shelf was getting crowded.

The buzz was now spreading in film circles. Producers Guild of America (PGA) had put the acclaimed film on track to be a major contender at the Oscars in California. The 14th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards conferred five top prizes and soon followed the Los Angeles Broadcast Film Critics Association that represents 200 of the top film critics across the United States. Soon came the Golden Globes on January 8 and The Directors Guild of America awarded its highest honor, the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film, to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire on January 31. This movie was Boyle’s eighth feature film, and he was visibly thrilled.

Exploiting the Underprivileged

It’s amazing how the entire film world in the United States, Canada and in Europe went gaga over a movie that is India-based, but in India where the film was made, reviews have been mixed. Part of the reaction seems to stem from a seeming exploitation of poverty in India and a candid portrayal of a love story that touches on the winning of huge rupee amounts. Speculation is also rife that because director, Danny Boyle is British just as Richard Attenborough is of British origin, the movie attempted to make fun of the underdog.

Simon Beaufoy, the British screen writer who won was excited to adapt Indian diplomat-cum-writer Vikas Swarup’s novel “Q&A” since he said, he had the flexibility of changing the narrative to emphasize love instead of money. Two brothers – Jamal and Salim – are poles apart in personalities but their binding love in spite of setbacks comes through in the writer’s creation.

As Anil Kapoor (Prem Kumar, the question-master in the film) says, after the first rave reviews, everything was a surprise, and it was difficult for everything to sink in. He adds: “The past two-three years have been phenomenal for me, and from a fulfillment standpoint I am happy with whatever I have done – both as actor and producer.”

Doors have opened already for the Slumdog lead – Freida Pinto who has been signed up by film maker Woody Allen with Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, stars Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin and Anthony Hopkins in a film to be made in London. Well-known director of supernatural films, Night T. Shyamalan (of Indian origin) has picked Dev Patel for his next movie, a martial-arts movie, titled The Last Airbender. Dev would perhaps fit in seamlessly in the film since he has a black belt in Tae Kwando and dreams of making a martial arts movie like Britain's Bruce Lee. Slumdog’s success has spun off favorable impacts for many individuals starting with the young children who will obtain a decent education to A.R. Rahman’s singers who will go on to higher octaves.

Dev Patel (Jamal) grew up in Harrow in North West London, U.K. and played Anwar Kharral in the hit British teen show, Skins. Dev says, he grew up with Bollywood films at home, and “being a London kid, a British Asian, I was happy to get in touch with my Indian roots, and I found another piece of myself when I was in Mumbai. I really wanted to have a chance to play a scene when I was actually in the depths in the slums, immersed in that environment.” In a dramatic cameo a younger, excited Jamal, about to meet actor Amitabh Bachchan (played by Feroze Khan) actually falls into a trough of night soil (actually, peanut butter, clarifies Dev, helpfully).

Also acclaiming the movie was Vancouver Film Critics Circle, Phoenix Film Credits Society, Oklahoma Critics Circle, Writers Guild of America for best Adapted Screenplay for screenwriter Simon Beaufoy and Anthony Dod Mantle earned a Best Cinematography nomination from the American Society of Cinematographers. The NAACP Image Awards (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) said, yes. There seemed to be no letting up and by mid-February, the India-made movie seemed a shoo-in.

While everyone was preoccupied with the success of Slumdog, another director, Megan Mylan quietly celebrated her Oscar win with her 39-minute documentary – Smile Pinki – produced in Hindi with English subtitles that relates to a 6-year-old village girl, Pinki from Mirzapur district, who is surgically treated for a cleft palate.

Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty celebrated their victory in the sound mixing category. Resul dedicated his award to India while ‘Jai Ho’ A.R. Rahman thanked his mother and declared in his mother tongue, Tamil: Ella pughalum iraivanuke (“all glory to God”). The film also received honors for its score, cinematography, sound editing and film editing. (See separate box for Winner categories)

Not a Success in India

It is interesting that the movie is more popular in North America than in India even today.

As of week 16 (Feb 27 to March1) the movie has grossed $115,024,121 in 2,943 theaters, the second highest grossing film in distributor, Fox Searchlight’s history.

Following controversies stirred up by vested interests in India, the film is not doing too well at the box office perhaps because poverty has been portrayed blatantly. Admittedly, many filmgoers, find it difficult to accept negative images of India specially since over the past few years, she has been riding the crest of a success wave. There is also chatter on blogs that A.R. Raman did not give sufficient credit to his singers and musicians.

Finally, lets remember, it is just a movie – it is fictional – for crying out loud. Why should every movie have a message or an agenda?

[Raj S. Rangarajan is a New York based freelance writer. He covers trend stories on art, travel and lifestyles and reviews books, films and plays for media based in New York, California, Toronto, South Korea, India and Australia.]

Oscar Score To Date
1983: Oscar for Best Picture – Gandhi and for Best Costume Designer, Bhanu Athaiya
1992: Satyajit Ray won an Honorary Academy prize for contribution to world cinema.
2009: Among the Oscar statuettes handed out at the 81st annual Academy Awards at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, February 22, 2009, eight were for Slumdog Millionaire and the ninth one was Best Documentary Smile Pinki about a poor Indian village girl:
Film producer: Christian Colson
Best song: Jai Ho, by A.R. Rahman and Gulzar
Best film editing: Chris Dickens
Best cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Best director: Danny Boyle
Best original score: A.R. Rahman
Best sound mixing: Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
Best adapted screenplay: Simon Beaufoy
Documentary film about an Indian girl that won an Oscar was:
Best documentary short: Megan Mylan for Smile Pinki