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Business Standard
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
'Sab yaad rakha jayega' poet Aamir Aziz accuses artist of lifting his work
A Delhi-based poet and activist has accused contemporary artist Anita Dube of using his popular protest poem 'Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega' without his permission, credit, or compensation. Aamir Aziz, an alumnus of Jamia Millia Islamia, called the act 'cultural extraction and plunder'. The 35-year-old poet said he first discovered the alleged unauthorised use of his work when a friend noticed the poem stitched into an exhibit at Vadehra Art Gallery on March 18. The gallery, one of India's most prestigious art institutions, is currently showcasing an exhibition of Dube's work. Aziz alleged that his poem had been renamed and recontextualised in the gallery, making it appear as if it were Dube's original creation. 'That was the first time I learned Anita Dube had taken my poem and turned it into her 'art'. When I confronted her, she made it seem normal — like lifting a living poet's work, branding it into her own, and selling it in elite galleries for lakhs of rupees was normal,' Aziz stated in a social media post. According to Aziz, this was not an isolated case. He later found out that his poem had been previously displayed without permission in a 2023 exhibition titled 'Of Mimicry, Mimesis and Masquerade', curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala, and again at the India Art Fair in 2025. 'When I confronted her, she didn't mention these previous exhibitions. She hid it. Deliberately,' Aziz alleged. He drew a clear distinction between solidarity and exploitation, saying, 'Let's be clear: if someone holds my poem in a placard at a protest, a rally, or a people's uprising — I stand with them. But this is not that. This is not solidarity. This is not homage. This is not conceptual borrowing. This is theft. This is erasure.' Aziz further claimed that sections of his poem were altered and embedded into wood carvings and velvet cloth installations, showcased in commercial gallery spaces — all without credit or acknowledgement. He accused Anita Dube and the galleries involved of exploiting marginalised voices for profit. 'The oldest trick in the book, inherited from the same colonial masters: steal the voice, erase the name, and sell the illusion of originality,' he wrote. 'Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega' rose to prominence during the anti-CAA protests, becoming a symbol of resistance. It even caught international attention when Roger Waters, co-founder of the legendary band Pink Floyd, read it aloud at a London event in February 2020. The poem also became widely known during the violent anti-CAA protests in Delhi. Now, Aziz says, the poem that once stood for defiance has been 'gutted, defanged, and stitched into velvet for profit.' Aziz said he sent legal notices to both Anita Dube and Vadehra Art Gallery, demanding accountability and the removal of his poem from the exhibition. However, he claims his concerns were dismissed. 'In return: silence, half-truths, and insulting offers,' he wrote. 'I asked them to take the work down. They refused. The exhibition at Vadehra Art Gallery is on till the 26th of April.' Anita Dube, known for her use of text, found objects, velvet, beads, bones, and ceramic eyes to explore personal and collective histories, often addresses themes of loss, regeneration, and resistance in her work. A public response from Anita Dube regarding these allegations is still awaited.
Time of India
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Purusha Prakriti celebrates earth month in Ahmedabad
Critic and Curator Uma Nair has been writing for the past 34 years on art and culture She has written as critic for Times of India and Economic Times. She believes that art is a progressive sojourn. She learnt by looking at the best shows in Washington D.C. and New York. As author her most important books are Reverie with Raza and Meditations on Trees by Ompal Sansanwal. LESS ... MORE The works of 39 artists come together in a historic showing at Bespoke Art Gallery Ahmedabad, in a celebration of Earth Month titled Purusha Prakriti. Paintings, prints, sculptures and ceramics by some of India's finest practitioners are all under one roof and it breathes of rhythms of the earth and the beauty of as an avant garde space by the brilliant architect Shomu Dasgupta, this is a free floor plan, longitudinal space that invites the gaze of art lovers to create a world within a world spanned over long walls. Himmat Shah and Manu Parekh Dedicated to the late modernist sculptor Himmat Shah, it begins with a small head by Himmat that belonged to his London series specially given for the show. The spartan, archetypal bronze textured head is a masterpiece in meditation and the idea of the human head always being an enigmatic symbol of life to artists and sculptors all over the idea of the dedication is taken from the fact that Himmat was born in Lothal in Gujarat and his life has been one of selfless service to the art of sculpture in of Bespoke Devin Gawarvala says: The Himmat sculpture is a definite example of his brilliance and we are so honored to have this in our gallery in Ahmedabad. The second master to be part of this epic exhibition is Manu Parekh. His early 1997 canvas on board is a monumental work created in acrylic and sand with a few splashes of deep purple that creates evocations of chants and the beauty of rituals and time spent savouring the world of contemplated idioms in Benares. Manu's handling of the compositional alchemy comes from his love for Abstract Expressionists and his idea of blending both materials and mediums to create Benares in its contemporary character. Manu was specially chosen after this critic saw his historic Samudra Mathan at India Art Fair as well as Astaguru's Showkeen at Mumbai. Director Anar Gawarvala, said she liked Manu Parekh's Banaras for its narrative of tradition and the suggestion of bhakti always being a part of Indian accents in the lifestyle of people from all walks of life. Ankon Mitra and Karl Antao Sculptural studies add to the inventory of artistic aesthetics in this show. The exhibition has an installation of 3 aluminium butterflies that have been powder coated and folded in origami style by the maestro Ankon Mitra whose installation is also a part of Ahmedabad Airport Terminal frame within a frame is the second work in this show and it extols the virtues of time as a testimony. Ankon is known also as a landscape designer who melds the consciousness of the inner spirit with a yen for botanical brilliance. The entrance of the show has a pair of Burmese teak multiple facaded sculptural heads by Ahmedabad dweller Karl Antao. Director Devin Gawarvala who admired Antao's works was delighted to discover Antao and said he was unaware that Ahmedabad had such a brilliant sculptor in the city. Antao is well known for his monumental sculpture at Trident Oberoi in Mumbai and has been a seasoned sculptor who works only in wood .Accents and shades of sanding down in varied colour tones is what sets apart Antao's work for its contemporary charisma. Sanjay Bhattacharyya and Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi The idea of Purusha Prakriti, was to include multiple mediums and materials. Amongst drawings in the show two stellar drawings speak of the oldest tools in the world, pen and ink, pencil ,pastel and graphite. Sanjay Bhattacharyya's Durga is a lithe lined beauty created as a tribal form and nestled in the beauty of says his Durgas are a celebration of form and feminine fervour and it isn't about religion. However it is the nestling of elements that draws the gaze of art lovers. Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi's Winged -5 mixed media on archival paper goes back to 2014 is work of depth and an artist Phaneendra is versatile in many mediums and uses his love for pencil to create man in monochrome suited to fashion modern urban wing of a bird is one deep zoological depth. ' The central figure is a figure of beauty,' says Phaneendra. ' My choice of donning him in a striped shirt represents the beauty, I associate with confidence. The wings of the eagle represent a different beauty: of unbridled freedom, of living life on one's own terms and an ambition that keeps him going in a competitive world.' Images: Bespoke Art Gallery Ahmedabad Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Watch Design Inspired by the Future
The past is a time-honored inspiration for many watch designers, but not the British industrial designer Tej Chauhan. He had his sights on the future when creating a second watch for the Swiss watchmaker Rado. Unveiled in February at the India Art Fair in Delhi, the Rado DiaStar Original x Tej Chauhan ($2,250) has a graphic black dial with silver sunburst rays marking the minutes — and bright blue rays for the quarter-hour between 9 and 12 o'clock. Those hours have personal meaning for Mr. Chauhan. He is the most productive from 9 p.m. to midnight, he said, and 9 a.m. to noon is 'when my brain slowly starts to wake up.' His design stamp also can be seen in the day and date window, at 3 o'clock on the dial, which presents information in the designer's proprietary font. The name of each day has a distinctive color, although they can all be displayed in white if an alternate setting is used. The case of the 38 millimeter by 45 millimeter automatic watch is made in gold-color steel and topped with a gold-color bezel in Rado's Ceramos composite, a mix of ceramic and metal alloy. The strap is a puffy rubber design in light gray, closed with a folding clasp. Rado's DiaStar design was first presented in 1962 and marketed as the world's first scratchproof watch. The new design, Mr. Chauhan said, was inspired by the future, in particular science fiction, landscapes generated by artificial intelligence and the 2019 film 'Ad Astra,' starring Brad Pitt, which featured reflective gold helmets and spacesuits. ('I'm really into spacesuits — it's a Tej thing,' he said.) He said that the future — 'where I live half the time' — was constantly on his mind. 'When I'm designing things, I'm looking both into the future and partly in the past as well, trying to combine this kind of futurism with a sense of accessibility.' Rado said the watch was sold globally, primarily through its website. Mr. Chauhan's first collaboration with the brand, the steel and ceramic Rado True Square x Tej Chauhan, was introduced in 2020. Its 38-millimeter square dial also featured the blue quarter-hour indicators from 9 to 12 o'clock. For Mr. Chauhan, who has designed consumer products for telecommunications businesses, automobile brands and other companies, the world of watches should continue to be an inspiration: 'I like the concept of a watch being this completely kind of self sufficient, intricately engineered object that has one singular purpose — that is to tell the time. 'Time is one of the few things that we've got left which is not going to become obsolete,' he noted. 'There's something about that narrative that I find really interesting.'
