Pakistani artist Bani Abidi on fantasy of heroes, nations, war – picture feast

Posted on January 7, 2013

Artist Bani Abidi takes aim at the historical narratives and cultural memories of South Asia.

Running from 5 December 2012 to 5 January 2013 at Experimenter in Kolkata, India, an exhibition called “Then It Was Moulded Anew” brings together three recent projects by Pakistani-born photographer and video artist Bani Abidi. Exhibited for the first time in India, the work is a reflection on how memory, delusion and power can collide in artistic production.

Bani Abidi, image from 'Proposal for a Man in the Sea', 2012, photographic installation, suite of 26 works. Image courtesy Experimenter.

Power and authority

Through the works on show in “Then It Was Moulded Anew“, Bani Abidi exposes what she sees as the self-conscious construction of historical narrative that underpins contemporary South Asian politics. The three projects contained in the exhibition examine the relationship between power and cultural production, showing how the deliberate manipulation of political commemoration and historical depictions can influence the fragile fabric of social life.
According to the exhibition press release (PDF download),

Power, which manifests itself at all levels of human society, is mostly insidious, frequently ridiculous, sometimes overt, largely pompous and rarely, intelligent. Bani Abidi’s work in the past few years has been inspired by the conceptual and visual vocabulary of authority and power. Having lived in a country where the forces of class, caste and feudalism define most social relations, Abidi’s works reflect these complexities through a sense of poignant satire.

The fictional video work Death at a 30 Degree Angle is set in the New Delhi studio of real-life monumental sculptor Ram Sutar, an artist who is known for his portraiture works of Indian politicians and national heroes. The video questions the idea of monumental sculpture, how the authoritarian desire to monumentalise oneself may ultimately give way to public ridicule and scorn when viewed through the critical lens of history.