Kochi: To promote cultural partnership and creative connections, the British Council is pleased to announce an exquisite line-up of eight celebrated artists from the UK at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in partnership with Creative Scotland. Continuing its association with this landmark event, now in its third edition, the British Council is delighted to welcome Hanna Tuulikki, Charles Avery, Jonathan Owen, Rachel Maclean from Scotland; and Nicola Durvasula, John Tilbury, Naiza Khan and Mikhail Karikis from England who will exhibit their artworks at the Biennale. This is an outcome of the biennale curator and director’s visits to the Edinburgh Art Festival and the Turner Prize in Glasgow in 2015.
British Council India Director, Alan Gemmell OBE said, “I am thrilled to be part of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. This is my first time here, and I am excited to see the energy and amazing work. We aim to bring the best artistic talent and collaborations to India, to not only strengthen ties between the UK and India but also to raise audience awareness of talent in both countries. We are glad to introduce these artists through a platform like Kochi Muziris Biennale. We look forward to another successful edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and hope to bring more UK artists to India over the next few years.”
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale seeks to invoke the historic cosmopolitan legacy of the modern metropolis of Kochi. Indian and international artists will exhibit artworks across a variety of mediums including film, installation, painting, sculpture, new media and performance art. Alongside the exhibition, the Biennale offers a rich programme of talks, seminars, screenings, music, workshops and educational activities for school children and students
Amanda Catto, Head of Visual Arts, Creative Scotland said, “It is hugely exciting to be at this wonderful biennale. Our artists from Scotland are very much looking forward to this incredible opportunity to showcase their work in this amazing setting. They are keen to receive audience feedback and interact with artists from India and other parts of the world, in this great cultural melting pot. We wish the Biennale all success”.
Meet the Curator Sudarshan Shetty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNKcZd76aJw
About the artists:
Charles Avery- Through his work, Avery has depicted an intricately conceived and ever-evolving body of drawings, paintings, sculpture and text which narrates the story of a fictional island. Avery’s project evolves further as he situates his imagined town within the city of Kochi, the existing architecture and social fabric of which acts as a stage for the enacting of Avery’s fictional narrative.
Hanna Tuulikki- Artist, composer and performer Hanna Tuulikki uses the voice to build worlds out of sound, immersive ethereal spaces that unearth primary relationships with the environment. In a process of revealing the land encoded in the song, the lore embedded in the land, she weaves connections between oral tradition, ecology, language, and archaeology.
John Tilbury- John is a British pianist known for playing both improvisation and repertoire music, and a member of the free improvisation group AMM, which he joined in 1979. He is an unrivalled interpreter of 20th Century composers such as Morton Feldman, John Cage, Christian Wolff and Howard Skempton, as well as adaptations of the radio plays of Samuel Beckett. His book Cornelius Cardew – A life unfinished (2008) is considered the definitive text on experimental composer Cardew, with whom Tilbury had a long and close association.
Nicola Durvasula- Her fine drawings, paintings and sculptures incorporate a number of influences including Japanese calligraphy and Indian miniature sculpture as well as the traditions of musical performance, including the graphic notations of experimental composers such as John Cage. Durvasula has exhibited extensively in India including in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi and was included in survey exhibitions of Indian art outside the country and is considered an important part of the contemporary art community in India.
Jonathan Owen- His work involves the systematic transformation of readymade objects and images, using materially reductive processes. He is interested in making by removing, and the controlled collapse of existing objects as a method of production and reactivation. Owen’s “drawings” begin as photographs found in books. He gently removes parts of the original picture which creates a new narrative within the image, whilst leaving a ghostly trace of what was there before. His sculptures work in a similar way.
Mikhail Karikis- His work embraces a variety of media to create immersive audio-visual installations and performances which emerge from his long-standing investigation of the voice as a sculptural material and a socio-political agent. He often collaborates with communities whose lives challenge the mainstream, highlighting alternative modes of human existence and action.
Naiza Khan- NaizaKhan captures the day to day experience of living and working in Karachi, where everyday life is affected by natural disaster, urban migration, displacement and political struggle. Through her work the artist explores ideas of movement and boundaries, the breaching of borders, as well as the perceptual and textural building of terrain.
Rachel Maclean-A multi-media artist living and working in Glasgow, Scotland, Rachel Maclean uses film and photography to create sickly, candy-coloured worlds filled with ghoulish characters.