Shakuntala Kulkarni Confinement 2002, Video In Confinement, Shakuntala Kulkarni locates herself in the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots that took place in Gujarat and shook the entire country of India. Being privy to the reports and documentation about the atrocities on women, especially the mass rapes, forced abortions and burnings and brutal victimization of the minority community (in this case, Muslims), left the artist deeply shaken. Living in Mumbai, far from the site, Shakuntala felt a sense of despair intensified by the impotency of being unable to help, heightened by the fascist ways of the Gujarat state government. Confinement shows the artist�s support for the condition of women by trying to reinact the world of fear, despair, and trauma. The struggle to sustain hope and not succumb to the situation is the core concern of her artistic practice. Using a tight, restricted space, with minimum light and color, as well as repeated sound and body language, Shakuntala tries to create an experience of entrapment and claustrophobia in an attempt to empower herself by never giving up and getting up again and again. Born in 1950 Shakuntala Kulkarni graduated in 1973 from J.J.School of Art, Mumbai. She has held several solo exhibitions in India including 2001/2002 �Reduced Spaces� multi-disciplinary video installation, Jehangir Art Gallery, Gallery Chemould, Mumbai, Gallery Sumukha Bangalore, 1999 �Godhadi�, Art Inc, New Delhi, �Chitrakala Parishad�, Bangalore, 1998 �Godhadi� Gallery Chemould Mumbai ,1996 ,Caryatid �A viewpoint ,sculpture installation and charcoal on paper ,Prithvi Gallery, ,Jehangir Art Gallery Mumbai. Participated in several group exhibitions In 2003, crossing generations :diverge forty years of Gallery Chemould, National gallery of Modern art, Mumbai. In 2002, Life in the time of Cholera APEEJAY Gallery, New Delhi. In 2000; Tao Gallery, Mumbai, In 1999 Ideas and Images, National Gallery Modern Art Mumbai, Icons of Millenium, Lakeeren Gallery Mumbai. In 1998, Kendal Walla through Indian Eyes, Warehouse Gallery, Brewery Art Center ,Kendal, UK .and University of North Lancashire, Preston, UK. In 1997, The Looking Glass self an exhibition of self-images, Lakeeren Art Gallery, Mumbai.50 yrs of art in Mumbai1947-1997National Gallery of Art in Mumbai. She was awarded the Residency at Brewery Art Centre Kendal, U.K. in 1998. The artist lives and works in Mumbai. |
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