MELTING POT

 - organised by Barbara Ash & Katarina Rasic in collaboration with Pritam Bhatty, Gayatri Gamuz and Priti Vadakkath.

"Melting Pot – a place where many people and ideas exist together, often mixing and producing something new." 

(Cambridge Dictionary definition).

 

"Melting Pot “ is an India to Europe exhibition tour of paintings by five women artists of different nationalities all working in India. The project is initiated by two artists working in Mumbai and Bangalore; a Serbian artist Katarina Rasic, and Barbara Ash from the U.K. In 2015 they had the idea to form a working artist collective, and use their "international links", by connecting artists and shows in India, where they currently work, with their home countries. 

 

Exhibitions:

KASHI ART GALLERY, Kerala, India, April 2016

SUBLIME GALLERIA, Bangalore, India, May 2016

KOMBANK ART HALL, Belgrade, Serbia, June 2016

THE NEHRU CENTRE, the cultural wing of the Indian High Commission, London, July 2016

SERBIAN EMBASSY, London, U.K, July, 2016

GALLERY BEYOND, Mumbai, India, January, 2017

 

"The Melting Pot exhibition examines subjects of identity and belonging. The works all represent a very clear and defined vision of the self, of the character and its narrative. It is like depicting the stereotype which has to be questioned and the idea of the 'other' in the Indian nation. “  

- Lina Vincent, Art Historian and Curator

 

“A cultural connection colours the mind and heart. For Katarina Rasic the essences of her domicile, Serbia, and influences of her temporary home, India, come together as she portrays her transforming self as a symbol of flux and change. Her body, her skin becomes the site to map her journey between cultures. Rasic exploits the language of repetition, providing straightforward and partially abstracted templates upon which to build complexity. There are oblique references to desire, domination, femininity and innocence interspersed in the imagery; the use of gold leaf brings in alternation, a projection of high sophistication and popular culture. The child form emerges as a metaphor for possession and loss. “

Lina Vincent, Art- Historian, Curator, 2016

1. World explorations 1, 42” x 36”, Acrylic, oil and gold leaf on canvas, 2016

2. Collective memories, 36” x  24”,  Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2015/16

3. In the heart of the city, 36”  x  24”, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016

4. Heart of the city, 36” x  24”,  Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2016

5. At the confluence of two rivers, 36” x  24”,  Acrylic and oil on canvas, 2015/16

6.  Yugonostalgia , 42”x 36”, Acrylic, oil and gold leaf on canvas,  2016

 

 

THE INSIDE STORY

(Processes. Emotions. Food)

Performance  

Encounters Art Festival by Art Oxygen, Mumbai, India, November 2017

Hyderabad Literary Fest, Hyderabad, India, January 2018

 

What is the connection between the food we consume & the bodily functions they activate? Can biting, chewing, swallowing, spitting trigger specific emotion? Do flavors and tastes stimulate memory? And can memory stir basic human desire to nurture? What happens to our perception of ourselves, our spaces and our relationship with others when feeding & nurturing become closely connected?

 

In her performance practice Rasic blurs the boundaries of the artist and the work, blending in the processes of work and exemplifying the miraculous transformation of the artist, the viewer, and the work itself into an experience of happiness, joy, love, fear, anxiety, and release, all emotions entwined in the daily experience of consumption of meals. 

Looking into complexity of the process of eating, artist brings the performance together, examining the importance of this daily habit for our overall wellbeing and highlighting the underlying emotional charge of the process itself. Performance evokes the need for introspection of our daily relation with food consumption, sometimes merely mechanical process, on which our life depends.

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7, 8, 9   Still from the performance The Inside Story (Processes. Emotions. Food), Encounters, ArtO2, Mumbai, India, November 2017

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MUMBAI CONVERSATIONS

Presented by ArtOxygen in partnership with “What About Art?”

Nothing is constant, the only constant is change.

 

Katarina Rasic represents the exchange of energies between sand and water through circular repetitive movements. This performance is a metaphor for the exchange of energy between the artist and Mumbai, between people and the artist in the process of creating an artwork. Rasic embodies with the performance a constant circuit and exchange, which ultimately leads to the transformation of self. Ending her performance in the water, she close the circle and merge into one.

 

10  Still from the performance Mumbai Conversations, Mumbai, India, April, 2017

11-13 Still from performance Mumbai Conversations, Mumbai, India, April, 2017

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