Making sense of nonsense art-speak

Last Christmas Eve Londonbased Mumbaiborn illustrator Janine Shroff debuted in the city with a solo exhibition called Otherlands at Dadarrsquos Sitara Studio On view were Shroffrsquos fantastical works mdash crowmen and termiteladies mdash and visitors could pick up a pamphlet titled The Oeuvre of Janine Shroff On reading you comprehended sort of that lsquoHer illustrations explore the relationship between synaesthesia and bodily cultures With influences as diverse as ENews and This American Life they capture the new tensions distilled from both opaque and transparent discourses of pop culture Shroffrsquos highly vivid work on the relationship between patriarchal transport practices and the eroticisation of the violent everyday is a masterpiece of enigmatic exactnessrsquoReena Saini Kallatrsquos Porous Passages was exhibited at the India Art Fair in February this year She ends up writing the walltext for most of her shows and this one begins with Reena Saini Kallatrsquos new body of works advance poetic and provocative inquiries into ideas of unision and estrangement on confluence and conflict ldquoWhile it is important that the language used helps communicate the artistic intentions and provide a deeper understanding of the work I dont necessarily think that the scope of the work must be limited to the artists ideas and intentions alone I personally feel immensely enriched when new insights open up new directions within my own practicerdquo she saysThe note was complete with academiastyle referencing and as you nodded knowingly hmmed and ahed alongside other visitors you realise you have been taken for a ride when you read the references mdashone of them artybollockscom where you can lsquogeneratersquo artsy artist statements Of course itrsquos satire you hear yourself say marvelling at your discovery Filled with nonsense and frequently mistaken for legitimate writing ldquoquality art wafflerdquo is how Shroff describes it But is such language far from the truth of the reading experiences many of us encounter in the warmyellow havens of city galleries Words like lsquodiscoursersquo lsquosubalternrsquo lsquodeconstructionrsquo and lsquoconfluencersquo proliferate the walls of art shows and force visitors to mask their bewildermentReena Saini KallatGallerist Abhay Maskara says ldquoThe art lover who walks into a gallery need not necessarily be a PhD With incomprehensible wall text visiting an art show is intimidating There is a place for academic text and itrsquos not on the wallsrdquo For the benefit of the erratic gallery visitors the wall text is meant to offer the viewer a glimpse into the artistrsquos journey while monographs and catalogues with their 2000word essays are more dense with artspeak meant to be consumed slowly with time There is something for everyone supposedlyIn her 2014 exhibition at Sitara artist Janine Shroff mocked jargonheavy academic writing that regularly accompanies artwork This painting titled The Breeders reads Here the juxtaposition of the industrial factory and domestic body creates a simulacra of body as a babyproducing machine and engenders disgust from the viewer It is precisely this heteronormative gaze that the piece challenges through a semiotic rejection of the childproducing normative idealConsider RAQS Media Collectiversquos sculptures of royal wardrobe sans the nobility who don them at the Venice Biennale this year The collectiversquos description of the installation called Coronation Park drawing from the actual site in Delhi is available on their website and it states lsquoThese fragments of ceremonial regalia residues of authoritative stances and the accoutrements of dematerialized power commemorate neither victory nor defeat They offer nine meditations on hubrisrsquo RAQS artist Monica Narula says ldquoWe have a more poetic rather than academic register and we are not massive fans of wall text When people use wall text to describe rather than evoke itrsquos a problemrdquoldquoSome curators and writers often think that creating an air of mystery and intrigue is something to be proud aboutrdquo says Maskara His eponymously named gallery in Colaba now shows Anant Joshirsquos Trembling Hands of a Clock sculptures arranged in a sweatshoplike grid only more elegant Before you step into the grid you are faced by a wall sporting text by poet cultural theorist and curator Ranjit Hoskote Of the show Hoskote writes lsquoIf the trembling hands of his title suggest the possibility of anxiety and diffidence that might afflict a warrior or player the clock reminds us that all confrontations whether matches or battles are bound by time which is the shadow of mortalityrsquo The text many would say is not Hoskoteish enough who has ldquoa reputation for difficultyrdquo his wordsJanine ShroffIs it too academic is a misplaced debate mdash an argument made on behalf of complacency mdash is Hoskotersquos opinion While I donrsquot defend the indiscriminate use of jargon I would also question the idea that art lovers are alienated by what they perceive as lsquoacademic Sometimes all this means is that some viewers donrsquot want to take the trouble to engage with critical writing Viewers and readers have their own share of work to do That said Mumbai audiences now engage vigorously and in an informed manner with critical thoughtrdquoThe cityrsquos art scene has been receiving a milder Hoskote one who has removed his veil of complexity He speaks of Banksy and Pussy Riot these days at lectures When asked about this Hoskote who began writing about art in 1988 as a 19yearold replies I donrsquot think I have become simpler in my writing Rather over nearly three decades of writing Irsquove developed ways of getting my ideas across while engaging in a dialogue with my readersExperts agree that there is too much patting on each otherrsquos backs and hardly any critique found in the countryrsquos art circles Abhay Sardesai editor of ART India says ldquoCatalogue essayists for obvious reasons cannot be critical of the artists or the shows they are writing about This often leads to situations where unimpressive shows are spoken of in grandiloquent terms as wall textperts go on an overinterpretation spreerdquoArt historian and curator Prajna Desai suggests solutions for the ldquoart mafiardquo by stating that ldquoThose who commission texts for the gallery context ought to insist on writing that is intelligent historically aware and specific rather than simply polished generalised or incomprehensible and therefore held up as erudite or meaningful What we need is muscular writing better histories less theories please as well as real publishing venues for art historyrdquoIn the meanwhile Janine Shroff hunts the particularly nonsensical blurbs when they happen to come her way ldquoI do sympathise with artists who may not be good writers being forced to follow a laborious style But Irsquove grown to take a perverse pleasure in finding the waffley onesrdquo she confesses And is Dr Anokhi Parikh who framed her bombastic bio actually a PhD holder Yes thatrsquos real she says