Latest news with #KochiBiennale
Mint
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
Aamir Aziz, Anita Dube and the hypocrisy of political art
The problem with artist Anita Dube's use of lines from a poem by activist Aamir Aziz has been best articulated by the aggrieved poet himself in his posts on social media on 20 April. As facts stand, there is no wiggle room for any ethical debate about 'good intentions' versus 'poor outcomes.' But there is a scope to look at this controversy as a symptom of a deeper malaise that's only going to get worse with time. But first, the facts. At her ongoing show at Delhi's Vadehra Art Gallery (VAG), titled Timanjila Ghar, Dube used several lines from Aziz's poem, Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega, as part of some of her artworks. While she attributed her source, she didn't seek Aziz's consent to use his poem. Any self-aware artist, let alone a senior practitioner like Dube (who curated the 2018 Kochi Biennale), should know the protocol for borrowing from her living contemporaries. At the VAG show, Dube alludes to many thinkers—Orwell, Mandela, Freud, Ambedkar, to name a few—but most of them are dead, and their works are out of copyright. Aziz is an exception. In 2020, during the nationwide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Aziz first shared his poem on social media. It didn't take long for it to become an anthem of the movement, alongside Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's fiery Hum Dekhenge. At the height of its popularity, Aziz's poem was read out by Roger Waters of Pink Floyd at a concert in London. Already viral on Indian social media, the poem found an instant global audience. If social media virality brings attention and acclaim, it also creates a vast space for exploitation. Not a day goes by without one creator accusing another of misusing their content—from misattribution to blatant plagiarism, these offences cover a gamut of black, white and grey areas. On the internet, it's relatively easier to shame the accused into taking down an offending post or story. At worst, the culprit loses some followers, has a rough few days in the comment section, and then the world moves on to the next social media trial. It's the law of the wild, wild world of the internet. In the real world, though, the rules of the games are not the same, especially when the stakes are high—monetarily or in terms of personal brand-building. Although Dube has tried to defend her action, claiming that her intention was to 'celebrate' the poem, as Aziz pointed out, quoting the poem at a public protest is, indeed an act of celebration. But to put it inside a white cube, with a fat price tag on it, without telling its creator, is cavalier disrespect. Since Aziz's posts, VAG has pulled out the disputed works from sale, but not taken them down at the time of writing. In a statement, the gallery expressed its commitment 'to all artists and their creative expressions'—a textbook case of having one's cake and eating it too. Such comments not only trivialize the gravity of the problem but also reinforce the hypocrisy on which so-called 'political art' continues to thrive in the intensely commercial ecosystem of making, selling and buying art. It has now emerged that Dube had also showed some of her other work at the India Art Fair 2025, featuring Aziz's poems without his knowledge. At that carnival for the elite, sponsored by some of the biggest corporate giants, it would have been a miracle if anyone had noticed such an infraction rather than the price of the work, or the latest fashion in contemporary art. As AI continues to train itself to become better imitators of everything that is beautiful and mysterious, it is critical to have exacting standards of transparency about every stage of the creative process. In 2023, Boris Eldagsen, a German artist, used DALL-E, an AI tool, to generate an image, titled Pseudomnesia: The Electrician, which won the Sony World Photography Award. In a bizarre turn, the jury still wanted to confer the prize on Eldagsen even after being told about the deception, but the artist refused it, because 'AI is not creativity,' as he said. The art of deception may not always involve such dramatic gestures. Sometimes all it takes is a seemingly innocuous slip for everything to become a slippery slope. First Published: 22 Apr 2025, 10:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Aziz accuses artist of using Delhi protest poem without credit
Poet Aamir Aziz, known for his viral spoken word performances since 2019, has accused artist Anita Dube of using lines from his poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega without his 'knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation.' Aziz has reportedly demanded adequate compensation, and legal representatives for both parties are currently in talks. In a series of posts on X on April 20, a day after Dube's solo exhibition concluded, Aziz wrote: 'My poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega has been used without my knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation by the internationally celebrated artist Anita Dube.' Aziz first performed the poem on YouTube in January 2020 during the anti-CAA and NRC protests. Dube, 66, a celebrated feminist artist and the 2018 curator of the Kochi Biennale, had also publicly supported the protests at the time. Dube's solo show, Timanjala Ghar: Three Storey House, ran from mid-March to April 19 at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi. The exhibition included a series of works referencing revolutionaries like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr, and Dr BR Ambedkar — alongside at least five works that incorporated Aziz's words. One work was titled 'After Aamir Aziz.' Aziz also pointed to another of Dube's works that referenced his poem and was shown at an exhibition in Mumbai in 2023. Aziz shared photographs of four pieces displayed at Vadehra, claiming they used his lines. According to him, one work was renamed after a legal notice was sent — though he did not specify to whom — but another retained its original name despite the notice. 'Let's be clear: if someone holds my poem on a placard at a protest, I stand with them. But this is not that. This is my poem, written in velvet cloth, carved in wood, hung in a commercial white cube, renamed, rebranded, and resold at an enormous price without telling me. This is not solidarity. This is theft. This is erasure,' Aziz wrote. Responding to the allegations, Dube said she was saddened by the 'social media trial' and admitted to an 'ethical lapse.' She acknowledged being deeply moved by Aziz's poem and said she used the lines in the 'spirit of Commons and Copy Left.' 'I realise I made an ethical lapse in only giving credit but not checking with Aamir before using his poem. I called him, apologised, and offered remuneration. Aamir instead sent a legal notice, and I had to consult a lawyer,' her statement read. Aziz also accused Vadehra Art Gallery of refusing to remove the artworks when requested. 'I have sent legal notices, demanded accountability. In return: silence, half-truths, and insulting offers. I asked them to take the work down. They refused,' he posted. The works were eventually taken off sale after Aziz contacted the gallery and artist. The gallery responded, defending its approach. 'Vadehra Art Gallery has always stood behind strong, political creative expressions. We give space to such practitioners because it is vital for society. All works using words from his poem were attributed to him in the wall texts, alongside quotes from Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Dr Ambedkar, which were also properly credited,' said gallery director Roshni Vadehra. According to senior advocate Chander Mohan Lall, an expert on intellectual property law, India's copyright laws prohibit any reproduction of a work without a license. 'Even partial reproduction of a literary work, such as converting it into visual art, requires a license. India does not have a de minimis exception like the US,' Lall said. Aziz's poem gained international attention when it was recited by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters in 2020 at an event protesting the incarceration of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Hindustan Times
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Poet Aamir Aziz accuses artist Anita Dube of using anti-CAA poem without credit, compensation
Aamir Aziz, a poet whose spoken word performances have achieved virality since 2019, accused artist Anita Dube of using lines from his poem, Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega, in her works without his 'knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation'. On April 20 -- a day after Dube's solo exhibition came to a close -- Aziz took to X (formerly Twitter) to write a series of posts. 'My poem Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega has been used without my knowledge, consent, credit, or compensation by the internationally celebrated artist Anita Dube,' he said. Aziz published the poem on his YouTube channel in January 2020 during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens protests. Dube, 66, an internationally renowned feminist artist and the 2018 curator of the Kochi Biennale, also publicly voiced her support of the protestors' democratic right to dissent at the time. A solo exhibition of Dube's works, titled 'Timanjala Ghar: Three Storey House', opened in New Delhi's Vadehra Art Gallery in the middle of March and ended on April 19. It carried a series of works including those that referenced words by revolutionaries such as Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King --- both of whom fought against racial discrimination and apartheid --- as well as Dalit icon Dr B.R Ambedkar, who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India. A few works also incorporated Aziz's poem, one of which was titled, 'After Aamir Aziz'. Aziz also showed photographs of four of Dube's works which, he stated, contained words from his poem. He claimed that one of the works was retitled after he sent a notice [he did not mention to whom he sent the notice]. Another was not renamed despite his notice, he further contended. 'On 18th March 2025, a friend saw my words stitched into a work on display at Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi and immediately called me. 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. But the more I looked, the worse it got. I discovered she had been using my poem for years including in a 2023 exhibition titled Of Mimicry, Mimesis and Masquerade, curated by Arshiya Lokhandwala and then again displayed in the India Art Fair '25. She didn't mention this in our first conversation. She hid it deliberately,' he claimed. 'Let's be clear: if someone holds my poem in a placard at a protest, a rally, a people's uprising, I stand with them. But this is not that. This is my poem, written in velvet cloth, another carved in wood, hung inside a commercial white cube space, renamed, rebranded, and resold at an enormous price without ever telling me. This is not solidarity. This is not homage. This is not conceptual borrowing. This is theft. This is erasure. This is entitled section of the art world doing what it does best extracting, consuming, profiting while pretending radical,' he added. HT reached out to the artist for comment. The story will be updated when the artist sends her response. Aziz, whose poem's translated text was famously read out by Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters during a 2020 event to protest the incarceration of Wikileaks whistleblower Julian Assange, also accused Vadehra Art Gallery of refusing to take the work down when he asked them to do so. 'I have sent legal notices. Demanded answers. Asked for accountability. In return: silence, half-truths, and insulting offers. I asked them to take the work down. They refused,' he wrote. Aziz has reportedly asked for equal compensation for the works incorporating text from his poem, and the matter is being discussed by the parties' legal representatives. However, the works were taken off sale after Aziz got in touch with the gallerist and artist. 'Vadehra Art Gallery has always stood behind strong, political creative expressions. We believe in giving such a space to this community of practitioners because it is important and vital for our society. All the works that used a few words from his poem were attributed to him in the wall text. They were displayed alongside works that carried the words of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Dr B.R Ambedkar, all of which were also attributed in the artwork captions,' said gallery director Roshni Vadehra. Earlier in the day, the gallery issued a statement: 'We have been in touch with Aamir Aziz and his legal representatives for over a month. This is a situation that we have taken very seriously. We immediately ensured that the works Aamir Aziz has concerns with were not offered for sale. We hope that the discussions that are ongoing between Aamir Aziz and Anita Dube can be resolved in an amicable and constructive manner. We remain committed to all artists and their creative expressions, and for building respectful dialogue across the art community.'
