|
Vibha Galhotra
The Final Feast (Staged Photographs), 2019-20 1 - 31 December 2021 The work is a satirical presentation of contemporary times, the latter increasingly plagued by social, political, economic, and especially ecological chaos. While it is known that there are a few ambassadors i.e. government leaders who make decisions for most of the world’s people, there is another theory that roots for a New World Order wherein a so-called power elite make decisions almost like a totalitarian world order, controlling the affairs of the population of the planet altogether, rather than that of individual nation-states. Whether the latter is true or not remains unknown; however, the fate of the world, at least concerning the environment, seems to be a collective outcome, albeit one that is severely lacking. The Final Feast then, with its satirical play on Leonardo da Vinci’s renowned painting The Last Supper, demonstrates how human greed has taken over the world, leaving it in shreds and pieces, just like the cake in Galhotra’s visuals. The sheer capitalism and lust for economic growth and wealth, whether on an individual plane or country level, has led to choices and decisions where the organism of the Earth has been repeatedly sacrificed and nature has been brought to a level wherein some parts of the world it can no longer nurture. Bio: Vibha Galhotra (b. 1978, Chandigarh, India; lives and works in Delhi, India) is a conceptual artist whose multimedia oeuvre―including sculptures, installations, photographs, videos, site-specific work, and public art interventions―addresses the shifting topography of a world radically transformed by climate change, consumerism, capitalism, and globalization. Propelled by the constant negotiation between human beings and their ecosystems, Galhotra’s practice utilizes intensive research and intuitive imagination to investigate the social, economic, and political implications of human activity on the environment. She draws from varied disciplines, including the fine arts, ecology, economics, science, spirituality, and political activism to inform a poetic visual response to the environmental changes and restructuring of culture, society, and geography occurring in today’s world. Studied:
M.F.A. Kala Bhavan,Viswa Bharti University, Shantiniketan B.F.A. Government College of Art, Chandigarh Awards and scholarships: Asia Arts Future – Asia Arts Game Changer Awards India 2019 Asia Culture Council Grant, New York, 2017 Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center Grant, Bellagio, Italy, 2016 Young Women Achievers Award given by Young FICCI Ladies Organisation (YFLO), 2015 Best of Discovery, 2008 Inlaks Foundation Fine Arts Award, 2004 National Scholarship by the Human Resource Department, Government of India, 2003 Artist under 30 Award, 1998 Chandigarh State, Lalit Kala Akademy Award 1998 Selection of solo exhibitions & projects: 2020: Beyond the Blue- JackShainman Gallery, New York 2019: Who Owns the Water? Dinner performance project, Asia Society, New York Climacteric – Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, India 2017 Insanity in the Age of Reason – New Delhi, India Lectures and Talks: 2018: Decolonial aestheSis lab Art History and Visual Culture School of Fine Art Rhodes University Grahamstown, South Africa 2017: Talk-Art Forum Department of Art and Design Montclair State University, New Jersey USA Presence of an Absence Talk -School of the Art Institute of Chicago Upstream Downstream – William Benton Museum of Art Connecticut, USA Artist Talk: Pizzuti Collection Columbus, OH,United States 2015 ACAW (Asia Contemporary Art Week) Field Meeting, New York 2013 Wake Forest University, North Carolina. South-eastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) , North Carolina Seminar on the New Media Practices, Lalit Kala Akademi, Chandigarh, India Pecha Kucha night Kathmandu Art Festival Manthan, Delhi Religare Art Initiative, Delhi @MOCALondon_WE @vibhagalhotra www.vibhagalhotra.com www.naturemorte.com All the content and images © Artist, Vibha Galhotra |
Image List
1-4, 6-11. The Final Feast (Staged Photographs), 2019-20 Archival Print on enhanced photorag hahnemuhle paper 35 in Dia. 5. The Final Feast (Staged Photographs), 2019-20 Archival Print on enhanced photorag hahnemuhle paper 35 x 76 in. 12. The Final Feast (Staged Photographs), 2019-20 Archival Print on enhanced photorag hahnemuhle paper 35 x 50.5 in. |