Synopses & Reviews
Accompanying the first U.S. museum exhibition devoted to contemporary art from Pakistan, this dynamic catalogue provides a groundbreaking look at recent and current trends in Pakistani art. Hanging Fire covers a fascinating range of subjects and media, from installation and video art to sculpture, drawing, and paintings in the and#147;contemporary miniatureand#8221; tradition. Essays by distinguished contributors from a variety of fields, including Salima Hashmi, Pakistani-American sociologist and historian Ayesha Jalal, and the celebrated novelist Mohsin Hamid, place contemporary Pakistani art in a cultural, historical, and artistic perspective.
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The book's title, Hanging Fire, alludes to the contemporary economic, political, and social tensions--both local and global--from which these artists find their creative inspiration. It may also suggest to the viewer to delay judgment, particularly based on assumptions or preconceived notions about contemporary society and artistic expression in Pakistan today.
Synopsis
The Swami Vivekananda's speech to the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 is the centerpiece of Indian artist Jitish Kallat's new work,
Public Notice 3. The installation went on view at the Art Institute of Chicago on September 11, 2010, exactly 108 years after Vivekananda delivered his groundbreaking address calling for an end to "bigotry and fanaticism."
The text of the speech appears on the risers of the Art Institute of Chicago's Grand Staircase where it is illuminated in the five colorsred, orange, yellow, blue, and greendesignated by the United States Homeland Security Advisory System to signify threat levels. This companion book, which documents the installation, is the first full-scale exploration of Kallat's work published by a North American institution. Along with an interview with the artist, essays contextualize Public Notice 3 within the space of the installation and evaluate Kallat's oeuvre within an international context.
About the Author
Madhuvanti Ghose is the Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, and Islamic Art at the Art Institute of Chicago.